Two weeks ago the craziest thing happened with our water system. We had moved into our new apartment about a week prior and our first problem already arose. Justin gives me a call to inform me about our problem and all I could say was “What do you mean our water is blue?!” Justin literally said that our water had turned blue. Like Royal Blue. I was perplexed as to how that happened. But at the same time I was not that confused because the water system in Georgia is complicated. Also, it is Peace Corps; therefore, unexplained $hit happens all the time.
He calmly tells me that the blue tablets that I bought for the toilet bowl is the culprit. I had bought one of those blue gel tablets that slowly dissolve in your toilet tank each time you flush. Attempting to keep our toilet bowl always sanitized, we placed one tablet in our toilet tank before our Tbilisi trip.
When Justin came back a day earlier than I did, he naturally wanted to use water. Except, he didn’t get clear and clean water. He got bright, royal blue water that is coincidentally the same color as the tablet. He turned on each faucet in the house and they were all blue- including the shower. The conclusion was clear: the water from the toilet tank “backwashes” into the reserve tank of the apartment. The silver lining is at least it isn’t the toilet bowl water that goes back into the tank- just the toilet tank. But I can still say gross?
Before I move on with the story, let me try to explain why we even have a reserve tank in the first place. In the United States, I don’t know a single home that has a water reserve tank in any of the states I’ve visited/lived. In Georgia, despite having rain all the time, we don’t always have access to water. I have been without running water for days in this country multiple times. This is not because there is drought (far from it), but because the water infrastructure is poor and crumbling. Therefore, the city water is inconsistent and does not run all day. Each neighborhood in the same city has a different schedule as to when the water runs. Better yet, even the schedule is flimsy. At our apartment, the city water supposedly runs in the early morning. However, I have come home sometimes to have it still running at 2:00 p.m. Other times, I wake up and the water still hasn’t come from the city. To combat not having water, each home has a reserve tank. Thus when the city water is running, the smart thing to do is to fill up the reserve tank. That way when the city water is not running, you simply use the water from the tank.
Back to the story…
Since I was still on the bus and was useless to Justin, he immediately went to problem solving mode. He tried emptying out the entire reserve tank. We obviously can’t use the contaminated water to shower, brush teeth, or cook with it. Problem was that he was not able to empty the tank completely. The pipe that is connected to the tank is placed almost to the bottom. Therefore, the last few gallons of water cannot reach the pipe to be emptied out. Worse yet, the tank would need a professional or someone with tools to dislodge the tank and drain it.
Once I returned to my site, I called every friend who lived in Georgia for a while to see if they had any suggestions. None have encountered the problem before or even knew how to contact a plumber. They did laugh (rightly so) at our misfortune.
Desperate, I called my supervisor at work late at night to see if he could help. It took him a while to actually believe what I was saying since our situation was so odd. After he understood everything, he was able to call our landlord and explain everything in Georgia. Since we couldn’t do anything at this point, Justin and I went to bed with no access to clean water. End Day 1 of no water.
The next morning, our landlord came over. Unfortunately, the city water filled up the tank so the water got diluted. Therefore, the blue chemicals were no longer super visible in the tank. In disbelief, our landlord wanted to see the tablet that caused all this trouble. Once we were about to hand it over, he was going to take the second tablet and put in the toilet bowl. Justin and I jumped to our feet with a firm no!
I had my boss call him again and explain to him that the water is diluted. It was important that our landlord knew that the water was still contaminated. Once he believed us, he said he will come back the next day with the proper tools. So there goes the second day with no water. End Day 2 of no water.
Instead of sleeping and enjoy the Giorgoba Holiday, we woke up early. We took empty huge bottles and filled them up with the clean city water (since we didn’t have to use the tank during these hours). Our landlord was coming after the city water’s schedule, so it was important that we fill up those bottles. He rolled almost two hours late to detach the tank from the basement. Justin and the landlord proceeded to empty out all the wasted water in the yard. Then they took the new mop I bought and cleaned the inside of the tank. By the time they were done fixing everything, the city water had stopped. End Day 3 with no water.
So the takeaway is just because a country rains a lot, do not assume clean, available, running water is a thing….
For more information regarding the water supply and sanitation, click here.
It is not just my site with problems, read here for another example.