Apr13 Written by:Kayle
4/13/2009 12:15 AM
Moving into a new place means there are usually things to fix: we had a leaking deck roof and the maid's roof was leaking, light fixtures or switches weren't working, our phone lines in the house weren't working for over a week, etc. However, this past week we've started to experience water problems at the house. We are entering into “the dry season” in Zimbabwe as the rainy season (Dec-March) has ended. Usually there are a certain amount of water cuts that take place when water is short in the country. However, this week we experienced low water pressure like we've never experienced. Apparently the city council turned down the water pressure because the pipes are so old and haven't been maintained properly; hence, pipes burst left and right if the pressure in the city pipes is too high. That means water can't make it up to the second floor of the house—no showers, no hot water in the tanks, no flushing toilets, etc. Often times our hot water tanks will air lock and drip out water. We have to be careful not to burn out the elements in the hot water heaters.
We do have a toilet and bathtub downstairs that seems to be getting water to it so this is where we all bathe and use the facilities. Our washing machine has to be started and restarted 5-10 times just to get enough water in it to start the cycle. Then about ¾ of the way through the cycle when there is another rinse, you find that you have to start and restart 5-10 time again just to complete the cycle. All in all, a cycle that should take 1.5 hours can take up to 3-4 hours because of starting and restarting! We find that nighttime has better water pressure for some reason, but who wants to be up at midnight doing laundry? I guess I'll have to do what I have to do.
In talking to the owners of the house, they said sometimes they'd run a garden hose from their well and pump water up to the second story to fill the bathtubs up with water. They'd use the bathtub water to flush the toilets or often all 5 of the kids would bath in the same bath water! Yuck! Needless to say, we're hoping to get this problem solved. What we have to do is buy a 5000L massive plastic tank (which can only be imported in from South Africa) and hook it up to the house water pipes with a pressure tank (also imported in from South Africa). City council water or our well water will fill the tank and always keep it pressurized at the proper pressure in order that we can pump water to the second story. It is quite a mission to get it set up, but once we do, hopefully our water problems will be solved.
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