Water...

[canadian bob]

We all know how important water is for our everyday needs.. flushing toilets, laundry, doing the dishes, showers & baths, watering the garden and so on. Water, or the lack of it becomes more important when there is no water coming out of the taps. Today is the eleventh day that Coraplata has failed to deliver any, despite daily enquiries at their office. They have innumerable excuses/reasons why we don't have water. We are reduced to dipping water from our pool for flushing toilets and other stuff like sponge baths. I save water in the toilets by putting several bricks in the toilet tank. Gallon jugs of pool water are used to do dishes etc. My question to DR1 readers is... What do you do to conserve the water that comes out of your taps? Thank's for your time! Canadian Bob.

[HOWMAR]

Bob,
Please clarify. Are you not getting water delivered to your tinaca by truck, or, aren't getting water delivered through the public system?

[Chris]

Wow, 11 days. It is hard. We once went for three weeks without, but it was because of electricity. Our underwater tank had enough, but we had to ´bucket´it out.

No we have a big black tinaco on the roof with enough water for 5 or 6 days if we start conserving seriously. So, the answer to your question, conserve/store up before it comes out of the taps. These tinacos are very ugly, but they are worth their weight in gold when you need them.

[georgios]

Collecting rain water has been practiced for centuries. Some Caribbean islands
still collect rain water for their needs. I've being looking into this for a few years and can safely say that it is easy & inexpensive to install a system
for domestic needs. Using the house roof for collection & installing the
right filters can solve 75% of the problem.

I really can not explain why I don't see any rain water collection systems
in the DR. If any DR1 members has this system I would love to see pics
and comments on efficiency.

Georgios.

[Keith R]

Originally Posted by georgios

If any DR1 members has this system I would love to see pics
and comments on efficiency.

Georgios.

[Dare I say it? LOL] So would the Green Team. We're slated to eventually do blogs on water conservation [both at home ("Personal Choices") and in business] and something on rainwater catchment systems, but only just beginning to look into it. So any ideas, tips, pics from the Dominican context would be great...Even better if we could find someone with some experience in all this to write a "guest blog."

[canadian bob]

Originally Posted by HOWMAR

Bob,
Please clarify. Are you not getting water delivered to your tinaca by truck, or, aren't getting water delivered through the public system?

The public piping system. Everything is antiquated and "maintenance " isn't in the Dominican tradition... Canadian Bob.

[macocael]

I would love to see some ideas for water collection, as I could easily install such a system in the campo. But my problem is really here in the city, our place in the campo always has water. The condo I live in has a bomba that gives out from time to time. Answer: very large tinaco.

But Bob, we also fill jugs with water and keep them under the sink,a s well as one large trash can,which is filled with water and kept out back in the Area de Lavado. Water here in the city is really the only problem I experience, as I am lucky enough to have a pretty consistent supply of juice. Maintenance isnt too bad, but I have an upstairs neighbor who doesnt believe in it (and he is an engineer to boot), so when his pipes leak, I really have to apply pressure so that he fixes it, and then repairs the damage.

Oh, one other thing, I imagine if you start storing water in big quantities you might have problems with mosquitoes spawning. I suppose if the containers are kept closed that solves it.

[georgios]

Searching under " rainwater collection system" at Google yeilded about
half a million results. I picked just a couple

http://gardenwatersaver.ca/

http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt9707.html

Georgios

[canadian bob]

Thanks Georgios!! Canadian Bob.

[Keith R]

Just when I say we're not ready yet to do a Green Team blog on rainwater catchment, Christa corrects and surprises me with a 3-part blog on that very subject!

"Harvesting Rainwater – Why and How?"