Sibu Tales : Night Soil

Streets of Sibu. Early 1950's. Photographer Unknown

Night soil is a historically used euphemism for human excreta collected from cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate area, usually at night, by workers employed in this trade. Wikipedia

As Sibu grew from a very small bazaar town from 1890's to 1950's, the town folks were used to very old type of human waste removal. By the time the Japanese came, the bucket system was already quite well established. The town council had taken urban health seriously.

The toilets in the shophouses used bucket sytem and the faeces were removed early in the morning by a few contractors who carried the pails away using their bian dan.

According to a friend, there were night soil boats waiting for these men. the boats would carry the night soil away to Sg Bidut and Pulau Keladi where vegetables were grown.

It was usually quite uncomfortable for us children to use the toilets in town in those days. Today if you visit Sibu, you can still see the holes at the back lanes. These holes were where the human waste buckets were placed and the Dang Sai Ah Pek would pour the waste into his pails. Dang Sai Ah Pek (Old Uncle who carried the night soil) was a special term for the Night soil man.

In the rural areas, toilets were were usually outhouses and human faeces  would fall into the cess pools. The pit toilets were dug in the hilly areas.

The flush system came only around the 1960's when the colonial government decided to upgrade the public health of the towns of Sarawak.