Living Without Water, Without Electricity, Without a Sense of Safety
The story of an elderly couple in Melaka who continue to endure deep poverty and threats to their safety inside their own home.
This is not a work of fiction. It is a lived experience shared by the couple themselves — a 64-year-old Malaysian husband, and his wife, a 48-year-old foreign national.
An Inherited Home Left in Debt
The couple married in 2022 and moved into an inherited family home in Melaka, registered under the name of the husband's late father, who passed away in 2008.
Before they moved in, the house had been occupied by the husband's mother (who passed away in 2019), his eldest brother (who still lives there today), and a younger sibling who has since relocated to Vietnam.
When the couple moved in during 2022, they discovered that water and electricity supply had been cut off since 2016, due to long-standing arrears left behind by previous occupants — including unpaid utility bills, land tax, and assessment tax.
Surviving Entirely on Rainwater
Since 2016, the couple has relied entirely on rainwater for drinking, cooking, and bathing. They store water in jerry cans and mineral water bottles whenever it rains, and during dry spells they are forced to ration what little they have to an extreme degree.
The structure of the family home has also begun to collapse — the roof leaks and is no longer safe to live under — but they have no financial means to repair it.
Fear Inside Their Own Home
The couple is forced to share the property with the husband's eldest brother, an elderly man who lives with mental health issues and, according to the couple, behaves in a manipulative and unpredictable manner. They describe him as often acting aggressively and deliberately bathing naked in the open yard rather than the bathroom, particularly when the wife is at the back of the house cooking or collecting rainwater.
According to the wife, she has since lived in constant fear. She shuts herself in her room and only comes out once she is certain her brother-in-law is not around. If she needs to go to the kitchen, she waits until he has finished bathing — but she says he often deliberately bathes again the moment he sees her step out of her room.
The husband, for his part, describes experiencing chronic stress, irritability, and at times speaking erratically — something he attributes to prolonged trauma from their living conditions.
Appeals That Led Nowhere
The couple had already tried several times to seek assistance:
- April 2025 — A group of representatives from a political party, along with officers from the Social Welfare Department, visited the home. The husband provided copies of utility bills, tax documents, and identification as proof of their situation. However, according to the couple, only the eldest brother was interviewed, and photographs were taken with him for social media — no follow-up assistance was ever received.
- The wife also sent appeal letters to the local Member of Parliament's office, the Women's Affairs office, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, and several well-known social media figures in Malaysia — none of which received a positive response.
Reaching Out to a Welfare Organization
In July 2026, the wife came across an advertisement online for a welfare organization. The advertisement featured moving images suggesting the organization helped repair homes for the poor, covered monthly rent, and offered other forms of assistance. She felt hopeful and reached out.
The wife sent a WhatsApp message describing their situation — living without water and electricity, and sharing a home with a family member who frequently bathed naked in the open — along with photos and video of the damaged roof.
The organization attempted to call, but the couple was busy collecting rainwater at the time and missed the call.
The organization called twice more. With her phone battery nearly dead, the wife gathered the courage to call back. They were asked to come to the office.
The couple visited the organization's office and were received by a welfare staff member, who recorded their information and copied their documents. According to the couple, the staff member was visibly moved by their story and told them they would receive rental assistance, and to return home and wait for a follow-up call.
A Disappointing Visit
The day before, a volunteer had called to inform them a home visit would take place. The wife was honest with the volunteer, warning them to be careful, as they lived with a family member with mental health issues who often bathed in the open.
At 10:30 AM on July 12, three volunteers arrived. The couple greeted them warmly, but according to the couple, one young female volunteer did not return their smile and appeared to be scanning the yard closely — looking at the motorcycle and car outside, even though the car had been broken down and unable to move since 2016.
Throughout the visit, the couple felt as though they were being investigated rather than helped. Among the remarks the couple say were made:
"It's so dirty here, so many mosquitoes. You should clean up."
The couple felt this was unfair, given that they live in a collapsing home and rely solely on rainwater.
"Sell the things you don't use. All of this needs to be sold."
The couple noted that this was difficult to act on, as many of the items in the house did not fully belong to them.
"Go get a job. Stop being lazy."
The wife explained that she had in fact worked before, but was forced to stop after her employer refused to process her work visa and failed to pay a month's wages — and she did not want to remain in the country without proper documentation.
According to the couple, the husband's Christian faith was also brought up, with one volunteer asking why they didn't simply seek help from their church instead. When the wife raised the need for rental assistance to move away from what they felt was an unsafe living situation, she felt this request was firmly dismissed.
The couple also said that an older volunteer who had brought a notebook to record information was stopped from doing so by the younger volunteer, meaning no official record was made that day.
A Complaint That Went in a Circle
Feeling deeply disappointed, the couple wrote a complaint email to the organization's head office in Kuala Lumpur, requesting rental assistance and reporting what they felt was an unempathetic visit from the volunteers.
However, according to the couple, the email was not handled directly by the head office. Instead, it was forwarded back to the same Melaka branch that was the subject of the complaint.
Not long after, the couple say the same young volunteer began messaging the husband directly on WhatsApp — something they experienced as distressing and intrusive, given the pressure and trauma he was already under.
A Hope That Hasn't Died
The couple has now decided they no longer wish to deal with the organization's Melaka branch, and will decline any further visits from its volunteers. All documents will instead be submitted directly to the head office in Kuala Lumpur, in hopes of a fairer and more transparent review.
What they hope for is simple: for someone to genuinely care about the plight of an elderly couple who have been overlooked — without religious prejudice, without judgment, and without bureaucracy standing in the way of help that should have reached them long ago.
Every elder deserves clean water, a safe place to live, and to be treated with dignity.
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