Give up? it's a swing check valve I bought last week to replace a spring check valve that is on the outlet of my water tank that is preventing me from getting the last few liters of water that potentially remain in my tank. To back track a bit let me bring everybody up to speed for those of you who do not live in Kingston, Jamaica. We are currently going through an extended drought and the NWC reserves(for the Liguanea plains) are running low. Now to prevent them from running dry they have instituted drastic blackout periods with areas, such as the one I live in, seeing as little as 4 hours of supply per day at low pressure.
The last time I checked Jamaica was supposed to be the land of wood and water, in fact it is inherent in the definition of Jamaica but some how I only "have" water for 20 hours of the week. I also need to mention that during those few hours I still do not actually get water as the pressure is so low it only serves the ground floor and I live one floor up. To further complicate things my water tank is on the roof, 4 floors up, so you know that has not seen the likes of water for many weeks now. Ahh the many joys of apartment life.
How do I cope? I have some 5 gallon buckets, some smaller buckets and a large array of 5 litre bottles that I fill up by the garden pipe on the common front lawn when water is available downstairs and haul up the precious commodity back home. Other people have opted to buy water from water trucks who are making a killing during this period. They charge retail $2000 to fill a 200 gallon tank and I think around $8000 for the whole truck of water. I also question the quality of the water these trucks are supplying as well as people see them drawing water from questionable(swamp) sources and delivering it untreated.
I also have my parents who live on the outskirts of town to rely on. I took a shower at their house and gathered water from them today since there was no water at all for the past two days and my in apartment reserves were running low. But when I came home it seemed like the whole community reached a low point as I saw a water truck delivering water and about 10 of my neighbors came out with their bottles to get some "free" water. A pretty sad sight to see them scampering for the little water that the truck man would allow them to take.
5 comments:
It sounds really rough
lol uptown ppl collecting water at a stand pipe....
ima stop laff before mine cut off yaah
and im never giving u a bligh in a line of traffic again! u caan seh tanx? :P
hmm.. water came back in full force for a couple of days after the rain but now its gone again.
u sure you saw me in traffic? I doubt our paths would cross with my time schedule and all :p where was this?
if no rain no fall, no water, so it go
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