The whole of Kampong Ayer has only one fire station, and the wooden houses and the wooden walkways linking them has meant the water village, ironically, has been prone to devastating fires.
When the British took colonial control over Brunei in the late 1800s, a policy of inland migration away from Kampong Ayer was undertaken in the name of development.
One of the highlights of the get-together ceremony was the re-enactment of scenes from Kampong Ayer of the old, showing how people used the waterways for trade and day-to-day living. Other articles where Kampong Ayer is discussed: Brunei: Settlement patterns: …is an older part called Kampong Ayer, where Brunei Malays live in houses built on stilts along inlets of the river. I never understand tourists wanting to go. A Must See. Kampong Ayer, known as the village on stilts, is one of the unique sights that you must see in Bandar Seri Begawan.
Hence, it has often been dubbed as 'Venice of the East' since the past. If we try to treat it as an object in a museum, it will be difficult to have success.”Southeast Asia Globe is member-supported media website dedicated to the production of high quality in-depth journalism. Here you will come to understand the incredible history, the lives of the people and the changes which have made Kampong Ayer what it is today. Residents now are largely reliant on pensions and state support, or commute to the mainland to work low-paying service jobs.Compounding the loss of skilled work is the loss of the once important fishing industry.The fish stocks that once supported the thriving community have disappeared as water quality has worsened, due to pollution from rising populations along the river and the effects of up-river quarrying, explained tour guide Richard Ret.“It is difficult to find people involved in the fishing industry now, from making the boats and equipment to seeing actual fishermen out on the water,” said Ret.“The old houses here have no real sewage treatment, which doesn’t help keep the water clean,” he added, pointing at the ever-visible floating plastic bags, polystyrene containers, drinks cans and PET bottles.The lack of infrastructure development extends beyond sewage. The once-populous district of Kampong Ayer, a community of stilted homes and wooden walkways, is a shell of what it once was in its heyday as residents drift to the cityThe low, largely single-story wooden buildings that make up much of the water village of Kampong Ayer cling to the southern bank of the Brunei River, opposite tower blocks, shopping malls, minarets and the Sultan’s sprawling Istana Nurul Iman, the world’s largest residential palace, adding a splash of colour to contrast with the lush green forests rising endlessly behind it.Reached by a one-minute ferry ride from the compact central business district of Brunei’s capital Bandar Seri Begawan, Kampong Ayer – still possibly the world’s largest stilted water village – is now home to just 3% of the country’s 445,000 residents. When the fleet of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan called into Brunei in 1521, it recorded a population in Kampong Ayer of 25,000 families, and as late as 1971, about 60% of Brunei’s population of 136,000 – more than 81,000 residents – still called it home.“Why is everyone so obsessed with Kampong Ayer?” asked a teenage boy dismissively, eating KFC in the park surrounding Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque; the park, overlooking water villages on both sides of the Brunei river, formed part of Kampong Ayer until 1994, when a major land reclamation project led to the nearby malls, offices and the park.“It’s dirty and boring, and there’s nothing to do.