Memes

How long ago was this and where? China made a big push against extreme poverty in the years leading up to 2020 and a central element was making sure people had functional housing and plumbing where in some cases people literally lived in a big cave or in huts in remote villages. While poverty in general persists, conditions that bad were basically eliminated.

Edit: I see elsewhere you said 11 years ago, so yeah, I think it's perfectly likely you encountered something like that if you say you did, but I expect that if you look into how wherever you were is doing now, you'll see that it has changed because of the national initiative.