Water...

canadian bob

Bronze
Jan 16, 2002
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We all know how important water is for our everyday needs.. flushing toilets, laundry, doing the dishes, showers & baths, watering the garden and so on. Water, or the lack of it becomes more important when there is no water coming out of the taps. Today is the eleventh day that Coraplata has failed to deliver any, despite daily enquiries at their office. They have innumerable excuses/reasons why we don't have water. We are reduced to dipping water from our pool for flushing toilets and other stuff like sponge baths. I save water in the toilets by putting several bricks in the toilet tank. Gallon jugs of pool water are used to do dishes etc. My question to DR1 readers is... What do you do to conserve the water that comes out of your taps? Thank's for your time! Canadian Bob.
 

HOWMAR

Silver
Jan 28, 2004
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Bob,
Please clarify. Are you not getting water delivered to your tinaca by truck, or, aren't getting water delivered through the public system?
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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Wow, 11 days. It is hard. We once went for three weeks without, but it was because of electricity. Our underwater tank had enough, but we had to ?bucket?it out.

No we have a big black tinaco on the roof with enough water for 5 or 6 days if we start conserving seriously. So, the answer to your question, conserve/store up before it comes out of the taps. These tinacos are very ugly, but they are worth their weight in gold when you need them.
 

georgios

New member
Oct 2, 2004
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Rain water collection

Collecting rain water has been practiced for centuries. Some Caribbean islands
still collect rain water for their needs. I've being looking into this for a few years and can safely say that it is easy & inexpensive to install a system
for domestic needs. Using the house roof for collection & installing the
right filters can solve 75% of the problem.

I really can not explain why I don't see any rain water collection systems
in the DR. If any DR1 members has this system I would love to see pics
and comments on efficiency.

Georgios.
 

Keith R

"Believe it!"
Jan 1, 2002
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georgios said:
If any DR1 members has this system I would love to see pics
and comments on efficiency.

Georgios.
[Dare I say it? LOL] So would the Green Team. We're slated to eventually do blogs on water conservation [both at home ("Personal Choices") and in business] and something on rainwater catchment systems, but only just beginning to look into it. So any ideas, tips, pics from the Dominican context would be great...Even better if we could find someone with some experience in all this to write a "guest blog." :cheeky:
 
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canadian bob

Bronze
Jan 16, 2002
641
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Water

HOWMAR said:
Bob,
Please clarify. Are you not getting water delivered to your tinaca by truck, or, aren't getting water delivered through the public system?

The public piping system. Everything is antiquated and "maintenance " isn't in the Dominican tradition... Canadian Bob.
 

macocael

Bronze
Aug 3, 2004
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I would love to see some ideas for water collection, as I could easily install such a system in the campo. But my problem is really here in the city, our place in the campo always has water. The condo I live in has a bomba that gives out from time to time. Answer: very large tinaco.

But Bob, we also fill jugs with water and keep them under the sink,a s well as one large trash can,which is filled with water and kept out back in the Area de Lavado. Water here in the city is really the only problem I experience, as I am lucky enough to have a pretty consistent supply of juice. Maintenance isnt too bad, but I have an upstairs neighbor who doesnt believe in it (and he is an engineer to boot), so when his pipes leak, I really have to apply pressure so that he fixes it, and then repairs the damage.

Oh, one other thing, I imagine if you start storing water in big quantities you might have problems with mosquitoes spawning. I suppose if the containers are kept closed that solves it.
 

Don Juan

Living Brain Donor
Dec 5, 2003
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Rainwater catchment.

Our house in Vista Hermoza is a rather large one with a flat, slightly slanted roof that, when it rains, water gravitates toward only one outlet which fills a big tank. But it quickly overfills and all that precious water is lost as it streams out onto the street.
I've been thinking about digging out & installing a 2nd cisterna. ( we have one that collects from the aqueducto). But in the summer, it sometimes, gets very low. If we could catch all that rainwater, we'd have that problem solved forever....Now if we only had electricity most of the time to power our pump....:tired:
 

georgios

New member
Oct 2, 2004
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Don Juan said:
Our house in Vista Hermoza is a rather large one with a flat, slightly slanted roof that, when it rains, water gravitates toward only one outlet which fills a big tank. But it quickly overfills and all that precious water is lost as it streams out onto the street.
I've been thinking about digging out & installing a 2nd cisterna. ( we have one that collects from the aqueducto). But in the summer, it sometimes, gets very low. If we could catch all that rainwater, we'd have that problem solved forever....Now if we only had electricity most of the time to power our pump....:tired:

A second water tank is a great idea. Remember to keep that roof clean and
if possible paint with a marine grade material to avoid bacteria build-up.
A delay (roof wash 10 minute time) valve must be installed to reject the
wash rain water from entering the water tank. Debris, bird droppings and
airborne dust can not be deposited into the water storage. There are
several ways to divert roof wash water.

The storage tank must be underground and completely dark to minimize
algae growing. Dropping a chlorine tablet every 6 months into the tank will eliminate bacteria& algae.

Rain water systems are complete with a solar DC pump c/w pressure
tank to provide 45-50 psi. To have night water pumping, back-up the
solar panels with a couple of batteries.

Georgios.
 

Keith R

"Believe it!"
Jan 1, 2002
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Georgios, as always, very helpful comments. I wonder if you could read the blog entries and add any observations you might have as comments thereto (there's a "post a comment" link at the end of every blog entry). Your input would be welcome.
 

georgios

New member
Oct 2, 2004
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Keith R said:
Georgios, as always, very helpful comments. I wonder if you could read the blog entries and add any observations you might have as comments thereto (there's a "post a comment" link at the end of every blog entry). Your input would be welcome.
How can I post pics on the Green blog?
Georgios.
 

Keith R

"Believe it!"
Jan 1, 2002
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georgios said:
How can I post pics on the Green blog?
Georgios.
My understanding of the blog software we have is that you can't post pictures inside of comments to blog entries (if someone using the DR1 blogs has discovered a way, please share it with us!). But if you want, you could send the pictures and accompanying comments to greenteam@dr1.com and I'll make sure that they get posted as an entry following the entry you wish to comment on.

Best Regards,
Keith
 
Sep 19, 2005
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the public water was getting shut off more often at my GF';s house, to the point we had to go buy bottled water in those 5 gallon water cooler jugs to fill up two 55 gallon barrels they used for storing extra water. I asked why and they said that when the water is turned on it only for a day maybe then like 4 days no water. So I went out and bought a 750 gallon tank to go with the 500 gallon tank they had on the roof. Now when the water is on, they make sure the roof tank is full, then they fill the 750 gallon tank( in the yard ). So when the water dries up they have 1250 gallons to use before they run out now....since we had it installed the house hasnt run out of water yet.

never found out why the shutdown...i guess similar to the electricty issues..

bob
 

karenssp

New member
Jul 28, 2004
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Coraplata

We all know how important water is for our everyday needs.. flushing toilets, laundry, doing the dishes, showers & baths, watering the garden and so on. Water, or the lack of it becomes more important when there is no water coming out of the taps. Today is the eleventh day that Coraplata has failed to deliver any, despite daily enquiries at their office. They have innumerable excuses/reasons why we don't have water. We are reduced to dipping water from our pool for flushing toilets and other stuff like sponge baths. I save water in the toilets by putting several bricks in the toilet tank. Gallon jugs of pool water are used to do dishes etc. My question to DR1 readers is... What do you do to conserve the water that comes out of your taps? Thank's for your time! Canadian Bob.


Can you give me the address of Coraplata, I would be interested in visiting their business.
Thanks.