Water Update

June 20th, 2007 La Encantada, Peru

I Forgot We Used to Have Water

We haven´t had water for over 6 weeks now. I have become so accustomed to life without water, that I forgot what it was like when we had. Its just one more example that with the right attitude you can pretty must adapt to just about anything. Now let me explain what I mean by the fact that we don´t have water because you are probably thinking, "Brent, man can´t live 3 days without water."

About 25 years ago, La Encantada had water pipes installed. This means that each house has a, as in one, spicket that gets water for 2 hours every morning. About 6 weeks ago, the motor, that pumps the water throughout the town to every house, broke. Therefore, there is still water, you just have to truck out to the source to have it. Thus, everyone morning donkey carts sell buckets of water for about the equivalent of $.07. There is also an unwritten rule that you don´t ask to buy more than a half tank. That isn´t very many buckets, so the family is on super conservation mode.

The new motor costs something like S/. 10,000 to replace. The municipality offered to pay for half. That means the town has to come up with the other S/. 5,000. So far we have raised half of that. That means we need approximately another sole per person to buy the new motor. Everyone is arguing about how they have paid such and such and so and so hasn´t paid at all. Before the motor broke, people were paying S/. 4 per month for water service. Now they are backing about a sole every other day. That is S/. 15 per month. If each family would just pony up S/. 10 that would get the motor running and everyone would save the first month. Plus, think the convenience. The electric company has the ability to cut off people´s electricity by the individual basis. People don´t seem to have a problem paying that bill. Nor do they seem to have a problem buying at least 1 round of beer every weekend. Some things I just never seem able to comprehend. By the way, the cost of that round of beer…….S/. 10.