I grew up in a village in Lim Chu Kang in the early 1960s when piped water and electricity were non-existent in my house. In my early childhood years, I had only come into contact with rain water, water from the river or water from the well. I had no knowledge of running tap water until I was much older. When I had to take a bath, I would have to walk over to my uncle’s house a distance away to use the well at his property. The bathroom was a zinc-shed built around a well.  Water had to be...

For many years of my life as a working mother of 3 children, I was blessed with help from my late mother-in-law and a live-in domestic...