The great man's labours devoted to providing Samsok village with water services

President Kim Il Sung said:

"Our Party took measures to provide the countryside with a water supply system to relieve the peasants on the plains of their problem with drinking water and to free the rural women from the toil of carrying water jars on their heads."

Carrying water with jars on their heads had been a very heavy burden for women in rural areas of our country for long ages.

They had to fetch cold water at lunchtimes, while working all day on the field in a hot summer day, fill a whole big jar in the evenings, get up at the early dawn and prepare a meal for breakfast.

President Kim Il Sung, who had matured his plans of providing countryside with water services, feeling so heartbroken for the troubles of women carrying water jars on their heads, devoted his all to setting an example of water services while the socialist industrialization was being implemented.

One spring day in Juche 58(1969), President Kim Il Sung visited Samsok village to take care of rice-planting of the work team and halted on a hill road overlooking the village to have a bird's-eye view of it.

President, who was quite satisfied with the beautiful scenery of the modern village, had a shadow pass over his face at the sight of a female farmer, living at the top part of Block No.25 carrying water in a jar from a well down the road and felt deeply concerned about how tired ladies would be to carry water jars on their heads like that after working hard on the field all day long. And he said the burden on women is quite heavy as they also have to bring water, cook rice and do the washing after working as much as men, although men don't know well about it since they have rice cooked and served for them, and instructed over again to lay water lines after finishing the farm work of that year.

Not only husbands living together for decades of years but also ladies themselves had regarded such work as the one natural to women and their own duties.

That's why, nobody had ever worried the work would be difficult, no woman had ever said it was troublesome however hard the work may be, and, furthermore, no one had ever thought seriously upon their labour.

However, President Kim Il Sung had water pipes laid for them, considering the unseen labour of women carefully.

One day in October, Juche 58(1969), when he visited the village again to grasp the situation of its preparatory work, he told the work team leader to hurry up. He asked him the amount of water needed for the whole work team for a day.

When he replied, the President said the quantity was not enough, considering the amount of water needed to wash vegetables and have a bath, and asked where the head of water was.

It was not easy to find a water source that is enough for a work team to use as much water as they want for the village people who had suffered from shortage of water for a long time because they couldn't find any proper places for wells.

The old and villagers who had lived there for over 80 years and knew all the origin of mountain ranges, valleys and fields in the area like the back of their hands tried many times digged up wells on their own to get water, but they had to drink ditch water as they couldn't find any water.

Although they had several discussions on the head of water with the old people of the village, they had not found any proper place until then.

President Kim Il Sung told them to find a water source that day and headed towards a pumping station with a spring hole he had remembered before when they made a water reservoir for the pumping station.

President, while watching the spring hole carefully, said the amount of water would not be enough, and halted at the entrance to Tap valley in front of the sheep-fold past the reservoir. Looking around the surroundings, he said there had been a stream of spring water there before and pointed the very place to bore a hole.

It was in the spring of Juche 46(1957) when President studied the geological state of this village and provided them with a water reservoir for a pumping station to feed villagers of Samsok village on boiled rice.

12 years ago he was told that the spring hole of a water reservoir for the pumping station and the stream of water at the entrance of Tap Valley and that the amount of water flowing beneath that valley was the largest among the three valleys.

President Kim Il Sung didn't forget the geological state of the village he had studied 12 years before and personally went around several places to find the water source.

Leaving the village that day, President said there was an old saying that even a good spring would lack water if handled wrong. He told them to dig a spring hole carefully together with technologists and draw up a concrete plan observing the amount of water coming out, and sent them talented technologists of the sector.

By the concerted efforts with the technologists, the villagers could finally find a stream of spring with a great amount of water on the spot President had chosen.

President Kim Il Sung, who visited the village again a few days later, expressed great satisfaction over the crystal clear spring water rising from the source and asked how much water came out every day.

Having heard the work team leader's reply, President opened his small pocketbook, in which he calculated and wrote down the number of people in the work team, the amount of water needed for a man in a day and the quantity needed for the whole work team, and said with great satisfaction that it would be enough.

Then he asked the work team leader if they had examined the quality of water. When he answered experts had already done the examination and the water was so good to drink, President said they could lay water pipes faster and more easily in that case, informing them practical ways in details.

He told the work team leader, who was planning to make the reservoir on the mountain behind Block No.20, that all the three villages could use water together if they built 4 pillars at the upper part of Block No.25 and install a water tank on them. He said that although they needed to store a lot of water and they have to build reservoirs on high mountains to send it over a large area in urban areas, they didn't have to do so in the village there. And, then, he personally drew pictures on the ground to give detailed instructions on how to make a new type of a water tank.

Not only officials of the farm, for whom it was the first time to lay water pipes, but also the technologists who had come to help construction, regarded it normal to build reservoirs on high mountains.

However, President Kim Il Sung came up with a new method to save labour and materials and hasten the period of construction based on the deep research into the concrete realities of the work team.

He made a detailed calculation of the length of the cast iron pipe and the power of the electric motor and took measures to solve those problems before he left the village.

Later, President visited the construction site often to solve the problems on the spot and discussed in details on how many houses to share one tap, how to make the washing place and where to build a public bath-house.

Under the wise leadership and warm care of President, they could finish the construction for water services by early February in Juche 59(1970) in Samsok village.

When he was reported on completion of the water services construction, he highly appreciated their efforts and promised to visit their village. He kept his promise. He visited Samsok village in the morning on March the 26th Juche 59 (1970).

He expressed great satisfaction over water running out at the tap in the middle of Block No.25 and convinced them of several problems they had missed while casting a look at the water stream falling with spray. And he stood there for a while, looking around the village. He said that it was quite good to see sheep, chickens, fruit trees and, now, tap water in every house and that it was much better than the urban areas to live in.

Indeed, under the wise leadership of the President, who devoted all his life to the work to make our people the happiest one in the world cherishing the motto ‘People are my God' in his heart, the Samsok village which had been called a damned village for lack of irrigation water has turned into a socialist civilized one which has a good network of irrigation water and water service system, and the women, who had to live under heavy burden of kitchen work along with water jar, have been freed from it forever.

Samsok village could be transformed into a model of water services in rural areas thanks to the devotional efforts of President Kim Il Sung, who was busy looking after all the affairs of the country shouldering the great responsibilities of the revolution alone, became a geologist, calculated the amount of water needed for the village, found the stream of spring water, taught rational ways of laying water pipes and provided them with necessary equipment in order to liberate our women from water jars.