# Water crisis!



## Giacomina

Is anyone else doing without water from the tap these days? We have no water at all some times, usually first thing in the mornings, today most of the day. What water does come through is a disgusting grey colour. Its pretty awful not being able to flush toilets or do dishes. BLeck. The last time some came from the tap I filled up a laundry tub for flushing and keep it with a small bucket near the toilet. It took forever just to fill the tub as all we are getting is a trickle from the taps. 

Paper plates and eating non cooked food so no pots and pans will be used. I live in Calabria. How is everyone coping with water shortages?


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## NickZ

It's going to depend on your local area. We're just having low pressure over night . Other then that no problem.


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## Giacomina

NickZ said:


> It's going to depend on your local area. We're just having low pressure over night . Other then that no problem.


I wish it was just one night, but this has been going on for several days -- just a trickle of water and then it stops altogether. I got an email from a tourist club letting me know that they had low water pressure for three hours but that happened on Aug. 8 have had no problems with water issues since then. They are in Calabria too. 

Well, at least the holiday clubs and tourists wont be suffering in this heat. Mountain people are probably getting used to a lack of water like I am. Remember the promises the EU gov. made around 2001? that all of Italy and Greece would have potable drinking water before 2010? Please dont tell me that this is the fault of the Mafia, there is no point in making up scapegoats for the inadequacy of the EU machine.

I really wish this little bit of water that we do get wasnt so ghastly dirty.


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## MaidenScotland

Have you checked your neighbours also have the same problem? It might be you have a leak,


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## Giacomina

*spring water too*



MaidenScotland said:


> Have you checked your neighbours also have the same problem? It might be you have a leak,


In my town there are natural springs and wells which the piazzas and buildings have been built around since hundreds of years ago. These springs are still used by the ladies to get buckets of water for watering flowers and washing off their steps and the narrow streets we live in. They also sometimes have peoples hoses hooked up to the spouts for more extensive watering of vegetable gardens. But this year, for the first time in hundreds maybe thousands of years, the wells have started running dry, no one knows why. Could it be global warming?

So, no, its not a leak in our house, because all thelittle wells in the piazzas are dry or just a bit of water slipping out of the spouts and all of the gardens are now dead from lack of water.

Wish it was as simple as a leaky pipe!


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## Giacomina

*some hope!*

A bit of water has begun to descend from our taps so we filled up the laundry tub and a plastic dish pan and looking at it here, its so disgusting I really couldn't think of bathing with it.

Hopefully it will keep running and will clear up in the night hours without stopping again.

We will definately have to use purchased bottled water for cooking until things get better. What would be great is a nice rainfall! which doesn't seem possible according to weather forcasts


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## NickZ

MaidenScotland said:


> Have you checked your neighbours also have the same problem? It might be you have a leak,


You really should ask around. With things that bad the town/water company should have arranged for water tankers.


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## Giacomina

*little change*



NickZ said:


> You really should ask around. With things that bad the town/water company should have arranged for water tankers.


I think the water tankers are all busy with the forest fires around here.

We have "asked around". More like we talked to our landlord, no response. We talked to the ladies carrying plastic containers of water up hills from the few dripping fountains to compensate for the lack of water from their taps. Basically its just met with " non possiamo fare niente" and a,lot of shrugs and waving a hand circularly and looking at the sky. So I always say no rain, no water and they agree. 

Things havent gotten much better. We have low pressure water for maybe five hours a day. Yesterday my husband happened to see someone who works at the commune and he commented that we have no water, so later the city worker looked in my kitchen and asked "l'aqua arriva"' and by that time some had arrived so I could say yes, a litte, but there was'nt enough later for a shower and this morning, as usual, there was none.

The lady who runs the grocery store just says that's how it is, and shrugs. Nobody seems to really care all that much even though they acknowledge that there is no water.

The only improvement was that the water we got was not dirty like it was when I started this thread.

What is bothering me now is that when the water does come through, a lot of people start throwing buckets of it out their doors to clean the narrow streets around their homes. It just seems kind of crazy in view of the fact that we hardly have enough to wash the dishes.

Is anyone else having these kind of water shortages?


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## NickZ

Water issues are very local. Each town or in some cases groups of small towns runs their own water.


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## 50a

Didn't experience anything like that when I was in Italy, but as has been said things can vary greatly depending on which town you're in.


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## Giacomina

*Resolved !!*

We finally have water again. There was a lot of digging up pipes for several days and then the water came back. It was mostly in the lower part of the town that the water was not able to reach.

This was the most unusual experience I have ever had living in different countries!

Tanks for commenting all yous.


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## italy

too late now i should think but most people in areas with bad water supplies arrange to have their water arrive through as large a tank as they can afford either is pace terms or money so that they always have a backup supply, when mains pressure drops you have an electric pump which then cuts in to supply house hold water which obviously you need to use sparingly.. its called an autoclave if i remember correctly, the system used to be common throughout Italy but since most places now have normal water supplies they have fallen out of fashion.. however down south they are still very common sites often on the top of buildings which means you do not need the electric pump.. but because of the weight its easier to locate them in the ground floor area and pump the water


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## Dillinger

How is the situation now? Has it rained at all?


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## Dillinger

Was it the pipes then? or a general lack of water? Or nobody knows?

Do people catch rainwater from their roofs there? For gardening, washing the dogs etc? Even showering would be OK. We do that a lot in the Caribbean.

Also can you not buy a small tanker of water privately? maybe buy a huge tank and do that ... if possible. the local fore brigade do that here. But you di mention forest fires.

I am moving to Calabria, so many questions ... sorry.


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## italy

calabria rarerly has lack of water problems from autumn through to spring.. in fact just the opposite.. they suffer from floods and landslides when the water does arrive from the sky.. although at the moment its more to do with cold and ice and snow after a week of flooding


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## Dillinger

italy said:


> calabria rarerly has lack of water problems from autumn through to spring.. in fact just the opposite.. they suffer from floods and landslides when the water does arrive from the sky.. although at the moment its more to do with cold and ice and snow after a week of flooding


Thanks fr that.


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