Turns out that when the city cuts off your water service — which is what happened to us a few days ago — you can just pick up the phone and buy some more.
There’s a whole industry of private “pipas” here, which are basically big water trucks that pull up to your house and fill up your cistern. They’re in the yellow pages, so you can even shop around for a price. Ours charged us 150 pesos per apartment for 10,000 liters of water.
You ask: But where do they get their water? And if they have water, how come the city can’t use it, instead of shutting off water to residents in the name of conservation? This is the official reason why we don’t have service, by the way — because there isn’t enough water to go around. I asked my landlady this question, and she just shrugged.
Because a person will go insane if they ponder these kinds of things too long, instead I’m going to focus on the positive, which is that we do have water now, thanks to the pipa guys. Our toilets don’t work — we have to fill up the tanks every time we want to flush — but we do have TV and cable and light.
The real water will hopefully come sooner or later. In the meantime, maybe I’ll call a laundry service for all the clothes piling up in the hamper.
I know about water troubles! My parents have a house in Mexico, and when we stay there (usually at the end of the year), there are always days that the water just doesn’t come on. It’s supremely frustrating. I usually end up sneaking to a cheap motel in town with the hubby!
help, water has been bought and put into cistine and still no water in my mexician house