The history of the old wells

There are two old wells in Lai Chi Wo Village, one is located at a path connecting East Gate to the fields and the other is located at a lane corner, adjacent to the hollow tree on the sloping ground. In the past, villagers fetched water from the nearest water well for all their daily needs, including cooking, bathing and cleaning. When fetching water, villagers needed to remove the protective wire mesh from the well opening and lower a bucket with a hemp rope to fetch water. During the process, villagers had to carefully control the amount of water in the bucket to avoid the risk of being pulled into the well by a heavy, overfilled bucket. To avoid making multiple trips back and forth, most families kept a water tank next to their stove to store water.

In the 1950s, the villagers built a reservoir on the mountain and laid a network of water pipes. Every household began to have a direct water supply and no longer needed to fetch water from the water wells. Despite the modernisation, the two old wells have been preserved till today and still have water in it.