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Anyone else experiencing this? Is this a frequent thing? My husband and I just moved here last month. Any feedback on mexicos utilities would be greatly appreciated thank you.
No water in Rosarito for 2 days!
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Believe it or not I once went without rum for an entire day and night because of the elections, you can't buy booze in some parts of Mexico during election day or in a hurricane. You will learn to stock up on the essentials. A tinaco is a good investment and stay three bottles of rum or your particular poison along with the mix. Tequila is good as it does not require any additions. I suggest Cazadores, a bag of limes and some salt. This will get you through the days of no water to bathe in with a smile.
A tinaco is a water storage tank. The longer the disruptions the bigger the tinaco... They also have cisternas which are underground.
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Where I live, the city didn't send me water this last spring for 3 weeks straight. Luckily I have 3000 liter storage capacity and am conservative with water. After 10 days, I had to run hoses from my neighbor's (who is on an endless well) outdoor faucet to fill my system, a four hour task. In Mexico, you should try to make sure you have a water storage system that will provide you with enough water to last at least a week.
I agree, even in the major cities. One neighborhood in Guadalajara was without water for more than a week. I am sure there have been other cases, that is just one I knew about.
I have a tinaco with 1100 liters and an aljibe (cistern) with another 2 or 3 thousand liters. Also, my water meter stopped working in March, so I have been charged the minimum each month since then. However, the water company is not losing much. My usual usage, 3 or 4 cubic meters (= 3 or 4 thousand liters) per month is about the minimum anyway.
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Was it a planned outage? The city used to (maybe still does) have a cleaning or repair of the system at least in certain neighborhoods usually in the Spring, often during Semana Santa. Water would be turned off a day or two. No big deal if it's announced ahead of time, even if you don't have a tinaco. Just fill up every available bucket before.
In San Cristobal, last year we did not have water for a month..and that is after our aljibe ran out of water...the neighbors told me not to get the water from the pipa the city was sending because it was contaminated so we bought a bunch of large drinking water.. it was a real pain but it can happen.
The water only get to our area 3 times a week so you have to have tinacos or aljibes.
right now in Ajijic we have been out of water for 2 month on the garden line.. the water company decided to turn off the water to a hotel down the road and turned off the water o our side of the line rather than after us...They said they would come today but who knows..thank Gog we have 2 lots so 2 lines..
The water only get to our area 3 times a week so you have to have tinacos or aljibes.
right now in Ajijic we have been out of water for 2 month on the garden line.. the water company decided to turn off the water to a hotel down the road and turned off the water o our side of the line rather than after us...They said they would come today but who knows..thank Gog we have 2 lots so 2 lines..
In the rainy summer, when my municipality's wells fill up, they send water down the line to my area almost every day. Ie., when my water usage is low, because my gardens are watered by the rain and my laundry is very minimal cause it's too hot to wear but the bare minimum of clothing 
Then, in the fall, winter and spring, when the place fills up with tourists who take 20 minute showers and throw a wet wadded up towel on the floor after using it once, and everyone is watering their gardens, I'm lucky to get sent water 2 nights a week.
Then, in the fall, winter and spring, when the place fills up with tourists who take 20 minute showers and throw a wet wadded up towel on the floor after using it once, and everyone is watering their gardens, I'm lucky to get sent water 2 nights a week.
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That sounds awful, surabi. Damn tourists!In the rainy summer, when my municipality's wells fill up, they send water down the line to my area almost every day. Ie., when my water usage is low, because my gardens are watered by the rain and my laundry is very minimal cause it's too hot to wear but the bare minimum of clothing
Then, in the fall, winter and spring, when the place fills up with tourists who take 20 minute showers and throw a wet wadded up towel on the floor after using it once, and everyone is watering their gardens, I'm lucky to get sent water 2 nights a week.
The outage for a week was planned. They were working on the water system. There were several restaurants on the street that tried to stay open without water.
When I was born we were about a mile from the center of a amall town of 5000 people. We had our own well for water. A few years later the town put in a water supply system, but we kept one faucet in the basement connected to the well. By the time I got out of high school and left home the town had grown to 100,000 and today it has about 300,000 people.
All that does not help the OP, the best to really know what happened is to ask the water company, make friends with the employees there and or the boss and ask. Each area is different so the problem in Rosarito could be different than the problem in central Mexico.
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A tinaco would help the OP. You can befriend anyone you want but that does not mean it won't happen again, having an emergency water supply is just common sense in Mexico. Just like having a few weeks of non perishable food. Earthquakes could disrupt the water supply for weeks if not longer.
Agreed, knowledge about having a tinaco will help.
Knowledge that this wasn't a rare case of Injustice, lack of competency, or whatever. That it probably going to happen again
Knowledge that many other here deal with and cope with this
The end result, letting go of anger, frustration. The ability to adjust to the new life, embracing a new reality. Neither better or worse just different.
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One actually needs a tinako AND a cistern, with a pump to pump up to the tinako. A lot of older homes in Mexico just have a tinako and rely on city water pressure to get the water up to the roof tinako. But sometimes the pressure is low and won't push it up that far.
As water flowing into an underground cistern doesn't require pressure to fill, when the pressure is low, the pump is used to fill the tinako.
Low tech solution is that people have to go out and turn on the pump manually. Higher tech is electric switches in cistern and tinako, which kick the pump on automatically when water in tinako is low (assuming there is water in the cistern).
Even higher tech is a pressure pump which pumps the water directly from the cistern into your house plumbing whenever you open a faucet. But if the electricity goes out, as it often does in Mexico, then you have no running water. So smart to also have a tinako which is kept full in case the pressure pump has no juice to run, with a valve you can switch over to the gravity feed tinako if necessary.
As water flowing into an underground cistern doesn't require pressure to fill, when the pressure is low, the pump is used to fill the tinako.
Low tech solution is that people have to go out and turn on the pump manually. Higher tech is electric switches in cistern and tinako, which kick the pump on automatically when water in tinako is low (assuming there is water in the cistern).
Even higher tech is a pressure pump which pumps the water directly from the cistern into your house plumbing whenever you open a faucet. But if the electricity goes out, as it often does in Mexico, then you have no running water. So smart to also have a tinako which is kept full in case the pressure pump has no juice to run, with a valve you can switch over to the gravity feed tinako if necessary.
A tinaco can be fed from your pressure system, preferably a submersible pump in the aljibe (cisterna). When the tinaco is full, it shuts itself off with a float valve. If the city supply is lacking, and the alhibe goes empty, a check valve at the tinaco will open and let gravity feed your home. No action is necessary by the owner, as it is low-tech but automatic....unless that check valve sticks. Then, just a tap with a hammer will jar it loose. We used this method for over 10 years and were generally unaware of interruptions in the city supply, unless we happened to notice the drop in water pressure.
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