The Empty Tank

Ever since Typhoon Pepeng a month or so ago, our water has been much more erratic than usual. The typhoon took out access to the source and the piping in a landslide. That was restored, but our pressure has rarely been sufficient to get water up to our 2nd floor apartment. Fortunately, we have a tank and water pump for just such instances.

But for more than a week now, there has once again been no municipal water. Apparently a pipe burst under some of the new concrete for the road construction work. Negotiations are underway, but until it is repaired, Samoki is without water. (Samoki is the part of Bontoc we live in.)

So what do you do when you have a family of 6 (5 of which are females) and water runs out? You call for water delivery. The water delivery guys park the truck as close as they can. Our place is about 50 yards from the road; others are much, much further.


Then they run hose to the tank. A pump on the truck pumps the water to fill the tank.

When it is full, you pay the delivery guy and he rolls up the hose then prepares for the next delivery. Each tankful costs us 420 pesos (about $10). We have just been glad to get water. Remember, nobody has water right now so these guys are busy. Our last delivery did not arrive until 9:30 pm though we had called them about 8 am. That is better than the last time when we needed to wait more than a day before they could make the delivery. I understand that we were fortunate to even contact them because they have been so busy that they are often turning their cell phones off.

Our tank seems to last about 2-3 days if we are really careful with the water use.

Our tank is piped to the pressure tank and our new little blue water pump. Before the new pump was installed, I had to do a little wrenching on it about every 20 minutes when we were using it.

The little guy in the picture below is Ezer. He doesn't really have anything to do with water delivery. He is our neighbor. When I was taking these pictures, he accompanied me. Normally when I see him it is because he is in some way hanging from me. We are good friends. So while he held the door to the pump house open for the above picture, I snapped a photo of him.

Grace,
Tom