Update on Water Situation

Today I finally had the time to finish my rain collection project. Up until now our only water collection consisted of a bucket under our window air conditioner. Just a little insight into our humidity here. Our 8000 BTU window unit running only at night will fill a 5 gallon jug in two nights. Doesn't sound like much water until you realize it's 3-4 flushes, something we highly value around here.

Quincho was here chopping the grass (with a machete), so after he was done we went to the hardware store. I bought one 4" drainage pipe at Q100 for a six meter tube, two elbows at Q35 each, an end cap at Q20, and a half yard of screen for Q10. There is only one place here that sells tubes with a line down one side. That made it a lot easier to cut straight. It took about 15 minutes with a PVC saw to cut it on one side. After that it was pretty straight forward. We slid it on the metal roof end and then used some left over bailing wire I had laying around to tie it tight on both ends. The weight of the elbowed end was enough to cause a slope so the water ran towards that side

and the cap kept anything else from flowing out the other end. I cut part of the screen and put it over the final tube to create a rough filter to keep large bugs and leaves and sticks and avocados out of my cistern. I didn't glue it so that it should just pop off when I want to clean it, but it had be forced on so hard that I'm hoping if it gets a little clogged it won't fall off and defeat the purpose. So another $25 to our water total and now we wait for rain.

It's kinda funny to me that since the pump broke for our town, it hasn't rained either. This has been the driest, rainy season of the three we've been here for. Today the big truck across the street was packing up and I went to find out what was going on. Supposedly they fixed the pump and we would have water now. I asked if they would turn it on to try it and they said not until tomorrow.

It was noon, so I suggested that they turn it on just to give water for a little while. They explained that that didn't make sense, since it was already noon and the water shuts off at 2 usually (when the generator runs out of gas.) So obviously people who haven't had water in 8 days wouldn't want it, even for 2 hours. Go figure.

They reassured me that it would be my side of the street tomorrow, but the time I tried to bribe/ask politely for them to turn it on our side for an hour they asked 3 times whether it was my day to have it or not. On the same note as above, whoever would have had 2 hours of water today, but didn't get it because the water guy couldn't be bothered to hang out another 2 hours won't have it tomorrow either and will have to wait until Thursday. Also, since they didn't check it (no generator ever started up, they are just taking for granted that since they replaced a part/of course it will work) there is still a pretty good chance something else is wrong and nobody will have water tomorrow either.

So we pray for rain...during the rainy season.