Knock, Knock, the gate I hear one day, as I had ripped out the doorbell the first week in my new house, after discovering school children liked it more than me. At the gate was a well dressed young man with a clipboard and a cardboard box. He explained that he was from the municipality and was there to test my water.
I found that a tad odd as the area I live in has no water supply, and I used a pump and very deep well. Okay, I’m thinking, this could be fun!
“Sir may I have a sample of your water?” he asked. And off I went to get it for him, as I enter my kitchen I see the Wilkins’s water dispenser and filled up his cup. When I gave it to him he held it up to the sun and peered intently at it, then opens his cardboard box and Somewhat akin to Harry Potter, he started to perform magical motions with his test tube and chemicals, and proceeded to turn my water a very unappetizing moldy gray. I gasped in shock that I could be consuming minerals in mineral water. It remained me of consuming Rum, in Rum & Coke.
Then the well appointed young man explained that if I subscribed to his company’s service I could have ultra clean water, and not die a horrendously painful death. Remember in the beginning, after the Knock, Knock, at my gate that he was from the municipality? Still being in a playful mood, I asked if the filtering system could be hooked up in line with my water meter. And found that it could. I then asked him to show me where it could be done, and let him waste ten minutes searching for the meter I didn’t have…
It was a hot day, so I offered him a glass of coke (I couldn’t give him that bad water) and explained that I knew he had fibbed to me about whom he worked for, and the water he had tested was Wilkins brand. Then my wife told him that the old Kano, liked to “Bulaga” people who tried to “Bulaga” him.
A couple of years later, a water system was installed, it was very small and could supply only about 300 homes, so they sold the water hookup to more than 800 homes. For the first 6 months I had city water every day, then every couple of days, then once in a while, and finally weeks on end with no water, as it still is today.
Then they gave me a bill for a few hundred pesos, which I could see no reason for, as a year prior someone stole my meter and I’d gone back to just using my well, six months before that. It was for a minimum monthly charge I was told.
“Sir, for the non-payment of your water bill, we are discontinuing service to your house!” Well they had pretty much done that, after the first six months. In July this year the non-water system was sold. The new company asked me if I would like to avail of their new service. They bought the company, changed nothing, nor fixed nothing. So I smiled and said, “When Caribou Fly!” As with living here, the well is also my choice.
Hi Paul – That reminds me…I still have to get that generator so that my deep well pump will keep my water tank full, my water pressure adequate, my hot water hot and my beer cold. (The other stuff in the refer can get some benefit from the cold beer storage, too.) 😉
Hi Paul,
It sounds like everybody has problems with their water down there (as well as with electricity) but your sense of humour and deep well have conquered all!
..I think we need to do an intervention on you Paul….. 🙂
No problem in Bulacan. Have Nawasa water and it hardly ever goes off. Also the price is cheap for it. Have been here for six months and no problems with the water. Some of the flooded areas here in Luzon with wells may not want to drink their water however. Still we buy mineral water even in the states we do that. GOOD LUCK BOB G
Paul you have a sadistic sense of humor. I loved your story. Thanks for sharing.
he wasted your time so you returned the favor, sounds like it was a good idea!
Hi Paul
I love your dry sense of humour(especialy round this wet subject hehehe)I have just returned from San carlos city,Negros occidental.One of the reasons I was there was to meet with the Mayor to discuss projects for power and water for the poor there, in amongst my ideas was one of capturing rain water from the rooves of houses, I know much of the time it is dry in the philippines, but when you consider the weather there of the past few weeks it seems pretty bewidering that people dont capture rainwater if only for washing purposes after the initial cost of buying container and filtering systems it is completley free. the one thing i noticed is just how much rainwater runs off one roof and immediatley thought the gallons of water people pay for and the gallons that just run away every time it rains.
Paul you’re too funny,…loved the go around you had with the water guy..sounds like something I would do.
Randy
Paul – Bless your heart! You have a streak that I love. I like to see how many books you sell to the JW’s that visit. When I lived in Kansas one of the men I worked with drilled a new gas well on his farm. They struck a underground river. Took them about a week to get the drill bit back up. Water was running too fast. So much for that well. The river ran from about 200 miles north but they didn’t know it flowed that far south. God willing I will move to Tagum City next spring. Just a few blocks from the City Hall. No water from 7:30 to 10:30 every morning. Yikes! My favorite time of day to use water. Something else to adjust to. Thanks for the great story. – Edward Gary
Edward;
And I need all the blessing I can get,(LOL) When the JW’s in the states would come to the door, I’d ask “What’s the point, only 300,000 may get into heaven, no room for me.” Then I’d add “It’s got to be full by now, can you get in?” Then they leave shaking their heads, I was put on the “BAD LIST”.
No water from 7:30 to 10:30? I’d just go to the comfort tree and say “Tabi-Tabi- Po.”
Excellent article … especially the subject matter. Those who obsess over the ‘monthly cost for this’ and the ‘monthly cost for that’ often fail to figure out a plan for those items that sometimes aren’t available at any cost.
@Bob G, may I ask where exactly in Bulacan you are speaking of? I live in Bulacan also, Marilao, and in my barangay … about 2,000 something residential buildings, at any time 500 or more will have no commercial (or home owners association) water. The reason is just as Paul mentioned in his area, someone built a system for ‘x’ number of homes and then went ahead and connected to about 4x number of homes. Walang tubig.
The house we rent was originally on a well, everything but the top of the well casing(pump, pressure tank, wiring, etc. was all stripped out and went to the junk shop years ago. Is there still water in the well? I dunno. We buy water for washing from the home owners association (it is ‘on’ for 3 hours a day) … you might like to read my article on my blog ‘tanks a lot, Philippines’, and for drinking/cooking we buy from the ‘water shop’ down the street in 5 gallon jugs, 18 stage reverse osmosis filtered.
Many things in the Philippines are different. We also get our regular share of ‘testers’ … water, electric, stove gas, etc. coming to the door, and sometimes, like Paul I let them ‘test’ things just to watch the carnival side show they put on.
Hi Dave;
Open your well, drop a line with a weight to the bottom. Then check how much of the line is wet.
In the short time I’ve been blogging I’ve noticed that questions very seldom receive answers. In my last article it was stated that a gentlemen renewed his E-Card in minutes. I asked where that happened, and never received an answer.
Is there such a thing as carpet bombing blogging? That would be where you hit many sites, inject a comment, and move on to the next target. Without ever returning to assess the results.
Back to the water, these little water companies, or at least the one in my barangay has never repaired a leak or done anything to try to improve their service. As I stated my meter was hijacked years ago, and I had to install the plug to stop the flow on the days (very seldom days) the water was on. The underground pipe leading to my house now is a very decorative fountain in the middle of the street, when the water is on. When I reported the leak, I was informed that it was my responsibility to make the repair. I just smiled and said; “Okay Fine, I’ll get right on it!” That was two years ago, and I still have coffee on my wall and enjoy the water show.
To One and All;
My comment above that the gentleman who renewed his E-Card in minutes did not respond to my question was wrong. He did, and all I can say is “Mea Culpa” As soon as I can get my foot out of my mouth, I’ll move on!
You can blame that to the time difference between the U.S. and the Philippines, Paul. I noticed that you’re up early (4:30AM) in DinBat, while it’s 4:30PM the day before on the U.S. East Coast. Some of the answers or questions posted by readers in the U.S. the day before do not get read by expats and readers in the Philippines until the next day when they wake up. By then, it’s likely that the answer or question posted will have scrolled far way down as to be readily seen in the the “Recent Comments” column. You’d have to go back to the article to check whether there were any response to the question you have asked. Is it possible that Bob Martin could perhaps lengthen the “Recent Comments” column to, say, 25 comments before the first comment disappears down below?
Thank You John;
I’ll pay more attention to time zones from now on! I wake early because I’m old! My head has already worn out two bodies. (LOL)
Hey Paul
I did a similar thing to a water tester when I lived in Utah. I figured it was his own damned fault because everyone in the whole valley was on a well. Great minds think alike.
Do you have to buy a share of water even though your on a well? I did. It seems some monopoly owned all the water rights in several counties.
Hi Hudson;
Now I’m confused, there you were in Utah, on your land, you paid to drill a well, you paid for pipes and pumps to get that water. Now someone comes and tells you that you must pay for the water? Our country had a big fight over stuff like that back in 1776, must we do it again? I love the Philippines, it’s my land, it’s my well, and it’s my water!
Hey Paul,
Yea, Weber Basin Water (WBW)owns all the underground water. How that happened I dont know. I bought a water share for $4,000, which entitled me to one acre-foot per year. Before I left Utah,WBW was threatening to put meters on everybodys well…just to make sure that nobody was using more than their one acre-foot allotment.