How long has it been?

One of the reasons why I was hesitant to write a blog before I came out here was because I knew I would not keep up with it! I get completely side tracked with everything else going on, and when I finally have a moment to write something I find myself sleeping before I can go use the internet! Nonetheless, I am back...even though I was never gone...but I am back...

I am also going to keep them shorter, so it is a quicker write and read for everyone. This way, maybe I will write more too (hmmm :) )

Blog topic of the day:  WATER COLLECTION, SHORTAGE AND CONSERVATION

Hopefully many of you have had a chance to travel to an island or country located near the Equator. If you have, you may have noticed the enormous (sometimes ridiculous looking) buckets or containers on the rooftops or beside buildings. These are water catchments.

In countries where it rains pretty much every day, they have these to collect water for showers, laundry, toilets, and sometimes drinking (depending on filters or their tolerance to bacteria). They are very simple but incredibly innovative and resourceful. In developing nations that struggle to keep their infrastructures well maintained, using these saves them from worrying about a public water system. The set up is simple:


Collect rain water through gutters and drains that empty into catchments.



Each catchment can hold up to 350-500 gallons of water!

The water then goes through a filtration system, and then supplies the apartments with water for showering and doing dishes. We do not drink the water straight from the faucet, which leaves us either using an UV pen or buying water from the stores - most of us do the latter.

Here is the problem: here in the Marshall Islands, even though we are only 7 degrees North of the Equator, we actually have a dry season. Basically, December/January to April/May is dry season and the rest of months are considered wet season. And when I say the "Marshall Islands," it does not apply to all the atolls and islands, nor does it apply to all of the Majuro Atoll that I live on, but where we are located we get into dry spouts. It is extremely odd. Between the said months, the wind picks up considerably. All of the rain storms are still produced and around, but the wind pushes them right by us leaving only partially soaked.

Storm coming in from the East off the ocean.



Storm missing us to the North.

 It must have something to do with the shape of the atoll, and our location on it. Whatever the cause, the point is that those water catchments are holding the only remains of rain water for us to shower! The Marshall Islands actually does have a huge public water reservoir (collected from rain water as well) that supplies many people with water, but they are currently on a water restriction: it is only turned on Tuesdays and Saturdays! Having known about this dry season dilemma since getting here, we have been told to take the necessary precautions in order to NOT run out of water. When there is overflow from the catchments (there always is during wet season), we can fill our 1 gallon containers and keep them all stacked up somewhere in our apartments. So then, during dry season and in order to conserve water from the catchments, we can use this water to take bucket showers. They are exactly what they sound like...

A standard bucket to fill with the water collected during wet season.

A standard shower to dump a bucket of water over you for a shower.

   
It is simple and relatively effective. Another thing we are all supposed to be doing is taking "military showers," which just means you turn off the water when you are lathering up. That actually conserves quite a bit of water. I used the word 'supposed' because we have now run out of water from the catchments twice since coming back from holiday in January. It is quite depressing when the realization hits you that some adults do not understand what the word "conserve" actually means. We all have a limited number of containers filled with overflow water, so we still need water in the catchments. We can pay to have the tanks filled with the public reservoir water, but that is obviously costly and not ideal. The other option is waiting for it to rain. That can get rather smelly considering at some points it has not rained for five to seven days straight. We have been fortunate lately because it has rained quite a bit despite the dry season. The catchments are currently almost full...

Until next time...time for my daily rain dance...
a