Fixing the water
| 3 min read
Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been on-and-off working on improving the water supply. When I bought the property I thought that this part of the city simply got less good water.
An easy thought to have since the city can’t even supply water every day. We’re in Mexico, and nothing really works like it’s supposed to. So yea, of-course the water is of lower quality. Duh!
Then I went onto the roof to remove some fallen palmtree leaves, clean up dust and other crap that accumulated on the smaller patio roofs and a few more things.
Turns out that our water tanks have no covers.
There are 4, 1100 liters (260-ish gallons?) tanks on the roof. 1 for each apartment. 3 of them had no cover. Over the years the tanks filled up as normal. But through the open top, grime, bird poop, dust and whatever else rained in also entered the water system. The water in the tanks was so dirty, I couldn’t even see the 20 centimeters deep into it.
Hooray! More stupid shit to fix. Thanks previous owners! You’re a bunch of dicks!
Luckily, a handful of chlorine tablets, a bucket, a sturdy brush and 3 new covers later and it’s looking much better already.
With the brush I scrubbed the inside and outside of the tanks. Removing algae and whatever else was growing on the walls on the inside. On the outside I removed all bird poop and debris. I’ve also labeled each tank valve so I know which one is for which apartment, too!
Then the hard work of scooping out all water started. I figured I just throw the water on the roof to flush out the dust and accumulated ‘nature’ on there. Leaves and whatnot. So I chucked buckets of water for the next 2 hours, emptying out almost 4400 liters of tank.
Yes, in the afternoon. Yes, it was ~40 degrees celsius out there. Yes, I wore my hat!
Anyway, I have installed the new covers, and every Friday I throw in a chlorine tablet to help clean the water. I’ll do this for the next few weeks so that all algae and germs or whatever will die off.
And presto! It’s been 2 weeks, I can see the bottom of the tanks already. Most of the fuzz that was on the walls is coming off and turned brown, instead of being alive and green. The water coming from the taps smells like a pool and no longer has a damp odor. There is a lot of debris in it though, from the algae flushing out I bet.
Tomorrow the third tablet goes in. I showered with it a few days ago and am still alive! So maybe I don’t have to buy 3 new expensive water tanks or do extensive repairs to the buildings pipes?
We’ll see!