A Worst Nightmare

Dark Water is a 2002 Japanese drama-horror movie about a elementary school student who had fallen into the water tank on the roof of the building while trying to retrieve her red bag.

In real life on Monday morning 16 May 2011, residents of a Woodlands Estate HDB block found their tap water yellowish and unnaturally foamy.

The cause: a dead woman's body had been found in one of the eight water storage tanks atop their 15-storey block. The dead woman was identified to be a 30-year-old Indonesian maid who worked in the block. A 27-year-old Bangladeshi maintenance worker has been arrested in connection with her death.




So what are the reactions of the affected residents when the nightmare unfolded.




A retiree who lives on the 11th storey said, "This is so disgusting. My whole family finished a big pot of green bean soup I cooked this morning."

Another resident, a 33-year-old housewife said she used the water to cook noodles for her seven-year-old daughter at 7.30am. "I think I'm going to take my daughter to the doctor," she said.

A housewife age 35, threw away a pot of freshly-made soup after she heard about the body. "This is just too scary," she said.

typical water tanks

Residents or otherwise, used these words to express the situation.

Eeewww, digusting. It's gross and upsetting too. This is just awful. The disgust is too overwhelming! Yuckssssssss.