Drip, Drop... Drip, Stop!

Water shortage problems are something we face every summer here.  And every year, I get numerous requests to explain the process by which we have access to water during these trying times.  It's all a bit complicated and so, after being inspired by an email from my friend Laurie, I thought I would just post it here on my blog for everyone to read.

We live on the top floor of a six-floor apartment building.  Underneath our building is what is known here as a 'borewell'... basically a groundwater well that provides all our water.  The water supplied from the well is good for cleaning and showering, but must be boiled or otherwise cooked if we want to ingest it.  

Our apartment building has one well generating the water supply.  There is an electrical pump that pumps water from the well into a giant water tank on top of our building.  From the giant water tank there are pipes that allow the water to be gravity-fed to the roughly 50 apartments in our building.  

Generally this is a great system.  However, during the summer, it's so hot here and there is absolutely no rain, so the groundwater is not replenished quickly enough to have a constant supply of water 24 hours a day.  The well gets low and takes a good 24 hours to refill miraculously from the earth.  Therefore, there is no water to be drawn to the roof tank or fed to the apartments.  The result? Once a day, the building facilities manager pumps whatever water is in the well into the tank and then opens up the pipes and allows each apartment to draw 15-30 minutes of water into their house generally only from 1-2 taps in the unit.

To catch the water, we set our alarms for 6.00a and jump out of bed just as the facilities manager is turning on the water.  Kevin stands outside and collects water into our empty drinking water (40 liters) containers, while I use the kitchen tap (also open) to wash all the dishes while the water is on, clean the countertops and the table, etc.

In between dishes, I also do one load of laundry... This is another elaborate process.  Since the tap to the washing machine is turned off, we actually have to 1) soak our clothes overnight in whatever collected water we have left; 2) wring out the clothes by hand and put them in the washer along with the least amount of soap that will still do the job; 3) Dump two bottles of collected water into the washer and turn it on... wait for it to do one cycle and drain... then dump two more bottles of collected water into the washer for the rinse; 4) Hang clothes outside to dry (we do this anyway... no clothes dryers here).

We can generally get enough water for what we need every day... 'showers' come out of a bucket.... we flush the toilets by pouring water down (only after 2-3 uses to conserve a bit... !)... we gather a little water in our 'turtle pool' so the kids can 'swim' during these hot months... and we keep one bucket for mopping the floors which has to be done every day.

This whole ordeal isn't easy, and the first week or so of it is really depressing and difficult.  However, after about a week we get used to it and it's not that big of a problem, although still wearisome.  When the water comes back on 24-hours a day??  We are soooooo thankful for that beautiful facility.  It also makes us very thankful and well-aware that there are lots of people in this country and in countries around the world who never have running water and have to walk a mile just to carry a pot of it back on their head.   So all in all, what we experience isn't that bad and we remain ever-thankful for God's provision for us.

~lk