I just sweated the last joint, we’ve tested the system, and the fourth person is showering after three days without running water… we replaced the pressure-tank/hauled in water system with a 900ft trenched connection to the recently installed county water system… no more counting every gallon and paying $45/1000 gallons!! YAYAYAYA!! Of course, we will still conserve, and the composting toilets aren’t going anywhere just yet (much to DH and the kid’s dismay) but what a treat to be able to shower, wash the laundry, the car, the dogs, water the garden, all those things we had to be very very careful about before, we can now do when they are needed.
How nice to finally enter the 20th century, LOL! (and yes, I do know it’s now the 21st)
The only place I’ve lived with a real lack of water (other than temporary drought) was not due to lack of finance, but to overpopulation of too small an area. That was miserable.
It was in Manila. They were having electrical shortages too. Had daily rolling power outages. The problem has been dealt with now, though.
Of course there are still people here who have no running water and the like. Some of my relatives just drink straight creek water, but that is not for those of a weak stomach.
One thing camping has taught me is how precious water is. There is nothing like a slow moving stream or lake to cool off the heals or go swimming in. If you have a canoe it takes the burden of carrying your necessities. Most important, on a good day of camping I will go through three liters of water for food and drink.
When I lived in Washington DC for a year the water was unsafe to drink twice, for about a week. Boiling was the method used to make it safe. It felt suffocating to not have water always at my finger tips.
As for creeks, their use to be a time that people could drink out of them, but that time is fading away quickly.
I used to drink out of creeks all the time when I was a kid, it’s amazing I never had any problems with it! Even in college my friend and I would drink out of the creek while we were out riding and it was 95 degrees. I’d never be so foolish now, but boy did that water taste good!
on water usage:
I grew up with a house that had a cistern. If my mother went to a laundra-mat, and we were careful, we usually didn’t have to buy water, we would collect enough from the roof.
They got city water long after I moved out on my own. Dad still kept all the outside taps and one inside tap on the cistern. Then he could water the garden whenever he wanted (the area typically has a watering ban during August) and he also continued to drink that water - he hated the city water (so did the dog!).
on drinking stream water:
I got giardia once, but from cleaning up after CITY raccoons - not from drinking contaminated water.
A friend of mine visited Aman, Jordan recently. She commented that in Aman piped water is rationed to different areas of the city throughout the week. Residents who have the means to do so pump water to tanks on the roof on the have-water days. On the days that the public water is off, the stored water on the roof is used and flows by gravity. I also noticed when I visited Tel Aviv that nearly every building had water storage tanks on the roof.
In the USA we take having clean water for granted. However, last winter during a serious ice storm at my father’s house in Indiana, the electricity was off for a week. Even though he has a good water well in the back yard, without electricity the pump didn’t operate, so water was not available. Some local residents left town and stayed in motels in towns that still had power. I think that it makes sense to have some stored supples of water to meet emergencies.
These were in wide use in Western Oklahoma, where part of my mother’s side of the family comes from, but well-water was generally very plentiful here in the east.
When we lived in Manila, it was necessary to keep trash barrels filled with water, which, when available, was just a trickle.
I’d drink branch water if it was filtered and boilt. Having suffered much from dysentery and parasites in the years I was in Mindanao, I have, of necessity, come to be pretty careful.
When I was a kid we drank water from rivers and creeks all the time in the sierras and rockies. Of course, that was before populations went up and the areas became overrun with tourists in the summer. I guess cows were crapping in the water even then but we never had a problem
In my early twenties I started carrying a filter with me when I’d go backpacking and camping and I never had a problem when using that. In fact, the only time I’ve ever picked up parasites was those (**%^ little worms from some soushi in California.
