The squalor and filth in which the McCourt children have to live is unbelievable. I suppose you are referring to the incident in the book where the bottom floor gets flooded out, so the family retreats upstairs. When an inspector comes he confesses to his colleague, "......(It's) Calcutta up there."
There is indeed cold running water, however, and Angela has salvaged empty jam jars to use as drinking glasses. That's it. There is no 'sanitary system' - only unsanitary conditions:
'It's December and it's freezing and we can see our breath. We pee into the bucket by the bedroom door and run down stairs for the warmth of the fire Dad has already started. We wash our face and hands in a basin that sits under the water tap by the door. The pipe that leads to the tap has to be held to the wall by a piece of twine looped around a nail. Every- thing around the tap is damp, the floor the wall, the chair the basin sits on. The water from the tap is icy and our fingers turn numb.'
- from Angela's Ashes, Chapter 3
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