Water: Pressure, Temperature

A week or two ago we woke up to what sounded like rain. Since it had rained the day before, it wasn't startling... Until we heard someone shouting "Hola" from the street to get our attention. (Everyone has a gate separating their front door from the street and almost no one has a doorbell to get their attention, people just call you if they're at the door.) The lady who was kind enough to stop and get our attention informed us that our clean water tank on the roof was pouring clean water out of the top and running all down the back of our house and down the street.

Apparently the valve that regulates when the tank is full, like the bulb in the tank of a toilet, was broken. Then, the hot water heater went out. We don't know if the water shorted it out or if its age took its toll. Since then we've been using cold water and manually turning the water on to fill the tank and turning it off quickly when it started to overflow.

Today it was finally fixed! And, in addition, the trickle of water we had due to low pressure was also fixed! That first shower felt amazing.

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Edited to add that another consequence of higher water pressure are the leaks we have discovered at the water hoses. It seems they are not built to handle any pressure higher than a trickle.

How do you get Water out of a 5 Gallon Jug?

When we moved to Abu Dhabi we knew we didn't want it to be a permanent position, so we didn't buy expensive things for the house as we knew we'd have to leave most of it behind. Sometimes this can backfire, but for us it has been a good strategy...

Except for this: water in Abu Dhabi is desalinated from the Gulf and stored in huge tanks at the apartments or water towers in Ruwais. Sometimes tests on these water sources come back contaminated so most people don't drink it but rather buy these 5 gallon or so jugs of water. (Because Benjamin and I first experienced these in Guatemala and because we don't know a handy word for them in English, we still call them "garrafones.")

Figuring out a proficient, reliable way to get the water out has been challenging! Because it needs to be something the children can get by themselves, lifting the whole thing and pouring it out, though fastest, wasn't feasible for everyday life. The inverted container mechanism given to us by the first water company (first picture on left) trickled out and took so long (20 minutes) to fill a gallon jug to put on the table for supper that we soon looked for a different option.

The second pump took two size D batteries... frequently! When it started costing more for batteries than for water we looked for something simpler.

The third pump was manual. You squeeze the blue part and it suctions the water out through a hose but it was difficult to control and flimsy and would only work for the top half of the jug and we'd end up pouring the rest out by hand again on the bottom portion.

The one we are using now is yet a different version: you pump the green button on top and it pulls the water out. Benefits to this one include an arm workout every time you use it and a clean table as it splatters every time. (It is a benefit! Really!)

You never know what seemingly insignificant part of life is just waiting to provide entertainment. I never would have expected it from the water pump. I'm thankful for accessible, clean water!