Water Supply

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Water security in Guatemala is not a problem if you know to take the time to investigate the situation in the area you choose to live, then take the necessary measures to overcome the shortcomings in the system. The water in our residential area is only on for less than half the time. Yet we hardly ever notice it. In fact, we lived here for several months before we even found out. This is done to keep from having to install the infrastructure that would allow the water provider to provide flow and pressure for all the houses at once. Instead, they have 'rolling water blackouts' that allow everyone to get sufficient water but not all at one time. All the houses have an in-ground 'cisterna' which is just a large 1300+ gallon cement tank with a booster pump and pressure tank nearby that pressurizes the water into the house when the 'city' water is not available. We found out after living here for several months, when we used too much water washing vehicles and watering plants/grass etc one day. Since then, we just check to see if the water is on before any large water usage. As long as the tank is nearly full, we don't worry about it. If it is lower, we postpone any water usage possible. We still take showers and wash, just no watering the plants or washing vehicles. And the great thing was that the water running out that day actually allowed us to meet a wonderful neighbor whose family are now great friends. They understood our problem and, having plenty in their cisterna, they ran a hose over to our tank and gave us enough to get by until the water came back on. Many houses here also have the roof-top cisternas, which are large plastic tanks that allow the users to even have water pressure should the power fail. They don't get a lot of pressure (it takes 2.31 feet of height to get 1 psi of pressure), but enough to wash hands and flush toilets. Showers are even possible with low pressure but possible. Sure beats hauling buckets of water just to flush. The best of all worlds is having 'city' water connected to a correctly piped underground cisterna and roof mounted cisterna to allow the city pressure to feed the house until pressure drops, at which time the booster pump and pressure tank feeds the house, unless electricity should fail at which time the roof-top cisterna continues to feed the household, though with lower pressure. And that also yields a safer solution since the user has in excess of 2000 gallons in case of emergency.

Submitted on Sep 12, 2014 - Category: Real Estate, Network: Guatemala

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