but the water supply stops

Today (Sunday) we are in the third day of intermittent water supply. It started on Friday and as we have a separate storage tank and pump to feed into our main supply, we didn’t worry about it until Saturday. Of course, on Saturday the town hall is not open so we went into economy (panic !!) mode and started to use the swimming pool water to flush to toilet, etc.. By Saturday evening, Wendy spoke to one of our non-resident Spanish neighbours as they were driving home to the village and asked if they had water. The answer was “Yes” but that evening the water came on for a couple of hours at low pressure, enough to fill up our tank so we assumed that they had spoken to someone who has the keys to the water supply…..

We awaited developments for the rest of Sunday and on Monday, we planned to drive to the town hall and stir things up a bit. It is probably just due to some overdue repairs or maintenance and they are waiting for parts or the right specialist to turn up.

All of this concentrates the mind somewhat and I feel that our present tank of 900 litres may need to be augmented by at least 2,000 litres to ensure that we have enough capacity for when we have paying guests. Of course, where we will able to unobtrusively install a 2,000 litre water tank is anyone’s guess !

It is times like this that we realise just how far we have come to make this house a comfortable home but also just how tenuous that comfort can be when either the water or electricity supply is cut off, a common occurrence in rural Spain.

The water supply was restored just one week after it stopped and was the result of a broken pump motor in the municipal well. Everyone around here breathed a sigh of relief but the installation of an extra water tank suddenly became both urgent and important.

As part of this little project, I also fitted a fine water filter on the rising main supply to catch any sediment.

After 24 hours the filter was the colour of milky coffee and after 3 days the colour of strong espresso. The irony is that our beautiful, natural tap water which is drawn directly from purifying limestone deep in the bowels of the earth and is supplied with all of the regulation European chlorine added, also comes with enough sediment to make concrete...