water, water everywhere

The way we get water in our house is quite different than the wonderful automatic pipes in the states. We have a 1,000 Liter tank right outside our house, and we have another 1,000 Liter tank on our roof. Everyday, the city pumps water into our tank on the ground until it is full, unless of course there is a drought, then we may go a day or two without getting new water. Then, we have to flip a switch next to the ground tank for it to electronically pump water up to the tank on our roof. If the water is not on the tank on the roof, we have no water in our house, because the water follows gravity and flows downward through our pipes in the house.

We seem to have a lot of issues with water. Over Thanksgiving, the pump broke, and we weren't able to lift water to our roof and into our housepipes. Also, our neighbors, who we share water with, will sometimes lift water, but forget to turn it off, and the water overflows on the roof over the house, and comes through our windows. Once, the pump burned up, and we weren't able to lift water for several days. Also, sometimes the monkeys will take the cap off a faucet we have on the roof for the washing machine, and all the water in the roof's tank will spill onto our terrace until we have no water left. For most of these situations, we've come up with solutions or at least come to expect them. But something happened the other day that not only do we not know how to fix it, we don't even know what caused it.

Somehow, the tank downstairs began to lift the water by itself, and the tank on the roof overflowed. Husband ran to figure out what was going on, and tried to turn off the water, to no avail. He climbed on the roof, and saw that none of the pipes had a leak. He went downstairs and saw that the pump wasn't even on. Somehow, though, water was lifting. He asked me to turn off the water flow on each pipe, so I ran around the house turning off each pipe. In the process of turning off one of the toilets, I accidentally turned on the bidet instead and got splashed in the face. Not one of my cleanest moments. But eventually we got the water to stop lifting and running over. I've become very water-conscious since moving here and it's hard to see all that water go to waste, and also know that as Westerners, the people judge us as being wasteful, and I don't want to prove them right.

Just one of the ways we see how the system in America is more developed!