Monday, October 29, 2012

The trouble with water

"We're out of water."  Turn the tap and it just doesn't come out.  Before coming to Kathmandu I took water for granted; it would always be there when I needed it - for showers, laundry, drinking, flushing the toilet.  Water here is not so simple (though I know that we have it much better than many).

Our primary source of water comes from the city, though it comes intermittently and if there is a schedule I sure don't know it.  It goes into an underground holding tank in our yard.  From that tank we must pump it up to the tank we have on the roof (though that requires electricity which, as I've said before, is not consistent).  That happens once a day or once every couple days.  Sometimes, we go through all our water before we get city water, so we use water that's been stored in big holding tanks on our property.  That water gets piped into the underground holding tank and then pumped up to the roof tank.  If there is no back-up water we call in a water tanker and pay to have our water filled from the truck - we've only had to do that once so far.

Rooftop tank and solar water heater
Reserve tanks
Basically I'm already looking forward to the hottest, longest shower ever when we go home to Portland for Christmas break!

1 comment:

  1. I just wrote about water this morning and am now catching up on your blog. The blessings we learn to appreciate!

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