Having to go without is often the result of a lack of foresight and planning. One of the realities of living in an under developed country is that you cannot be as reliant on the system to provide for your essential needs all of the time as you might be inclined to do if you lived somewhere else.
This country is a hairs breath away from calamity most of the time. A natural disaster such as a hurricane or an earthquake can have far reaching and long term affects on everyone living on this island. Periods of drought and failures in the delivery infrastructure or a major failure at a processing plant or pumping station can mean significant periods of time without water, electricity and maybe even fuel.
Water is life. One of the most basic of requirements for life closely following the air we need to breath. Each person needs to consume almost a gallon of water everyday. That same person then needs more water to clean themselves to stave of diseases and infections.
If you are going to live here, you need to have a stash of potable bottled water that you rotate constantly. You need to another stash of of water for bathing, cleaning and other assorted uses. How much of each you need depends on how many people live in your home. Figure 2 gallons of potable water per person per day. That means for a two week supply of water to drink and cook with, you need at least 5 big bottles of water per per person on hand all the time. How much utility water you need depends on if you wish to take showers or a sponge bath most days during times of no water delivery. How often you need to flush a toilet etc. If your one tinaco isn't enough to last a week then maybe you need a bigger one or maybe two tinacos. Perhaps installing a cistern or a 8,000 gallon swimming pool for recreation and an emergency stash of mostly purified water.
The long and the short of it is, you need to be self sufficient because there will be periods of time when you will have to do without electricity and water delivery in this country. Thankfully the majority of those times the interruptions are short lived and sporadic. However, one of these days, the time will come when we all will need to get through a protracted period of shortage. There will be no bottles of water on the shelves to buy, the delivery trucks if they can still be loaded with product won't be able to service everyone with nearly enough to meet the demand.
While it doesn't help you today, while you wait for the water to flow again, you might consider making some changes so that the next time, going a week or two without delivered water will not be nearly so uncomfortable and stinky. Your saving grace is that you can still get drinking water and if need be you can travel to a hotel and check in for a nice long hot shower. Those options might not be available next time.
Having a well and a cistern are two of the first things I look for when choosing a place to live. Next is the swimming pool. You can't have too much water in this country and indeed it is the same in many of the tropical developing countries. At least in these places, forward thinkers have water storage options. Back in the home country all I ever had was a tap, which thankfully never ran dry. Something that will worry me when I eventually return.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. If you can get to Sosua, I'll hose you down, give you a shower and let you soak in the pool sipping iced cocktails for as long as you'd like.
