Tap water in Hyesan, a city in North Korea’s Ryanggang province bordering China, now flows roughly once every five days, and even then reaches only some households, according to a local source, leaving the city’s population scrambling to stockpile water whenever supply briefly resumes.
“People living in the city are actually feeling the water shortage more acutely than those outside it,” a Ryanggang province source told Daily NK on Thursday. “Life is getting harder because the water situation in Hyesan is so bad right now.”
The unreliable supply has turned ordinary water collection into a daily ordeal. On the rare days that tap water runs, people rush to fill every available container, a frantic routine the source described as nothing short of a “water war.”
When tap water is unavailable, people turn to rivers and wells for household use, but that water is not considered safe to drink. For drinking water, Hyesan’s population is purchasing bottled spring water separately, adding a financial strain on top of the physical toll of hauling water by hand.
The source added that the water supply disruptions now amount to more than a daily inconvenience. “People are exhausted from hauling water, and now they have to spend money on drinking water on top of that,” the source said.
Poor infrastructure compounds the crisis for upper-floor residents
The situation is especially difficult for those living on the upper floors of apartment buildings. Already contending with infrequent supply, they face a compounding problem: chronic electricity shortages have left water pressure too weak to push water to higher floors at all.
“In many cases, water only reaches the lower floors of apartment buildings, and upper-floor households get nothing,” the source said. “Even when water is technically available, power outages mean those on the upper floors simply cannot use it. Most are left hauling water by hand.”
Some upper-floor households with the means to do so have resorted to illegally diverting electricity to run private generators and pump water upward, though the source noted that even this workaround comes with significant cost and effort. Others are weighing a move to ground-floor units or single-story houses, and some are paying others to carry water for them.
The convergence of failing water infrastructure and persistent electricity shortages is creating a hierarchy of hardship within Hyesan’s urban apartment blocks, with those on upper floors bearing the heaviest burden.
“Well water is hard to drink, so people end up buying spring water,” the source said. “But something like ‘Kuryongbong spring water,’ produced in Kanggye in Jagang province, costs 4,000 North Korean won per bottle, so it’s a real burden for ordinary people to keep buying it.”
Kanggye is the capital of Jagang province and a significant industrial center in North Korea. Kuryongbong appears to be a state-produced brand sold through official or semi-official channels.
“The water supply problem has gone beyond mere inconvenience,” the source said. “People see it as a matter of survival.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
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April 9, 2026 at 11:05PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)