# No water in Rosarito for 2 days!



## 143Cherrie$ (Oct 8, 2017)

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.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Welcome to Mexico, maybe they are shipping it to the wineries in the Guadalupe Valley ..........
Did you contact your local water department?


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

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.


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

Zorro2017 said:


> 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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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

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.


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

It ain't Kansas 

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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

surabi said:


> 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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## Rammstein (Jun 18, 2016)

11 Things Nobody Tells You about Expat Life | always a gringa


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

TundraGreen said:


> 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.


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.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

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..


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

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.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

surabi said:


> 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.


That sounds awful, surabi. Damn tourists!


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

perropedorro said:


> 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.


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.


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

Happy I have a well.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Zorro2017 said:


> Happy I have a well.


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.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

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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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

citlali said:


> All that does not help the OP,


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.


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

Zorro2017 said:


> 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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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

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.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

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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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

When I rewired my house a year ago, I put a three position switch on the pump from the aljibe to the tinaco: Off, auto (powered on when the tinaco is empty), and manual (powered on independently of the fill level in the tinaco). I burned a pump up once because it was on auto and it had not run for years and was not primed. Now, I leave it off most of the time and only turn it to auto when the tinaco is dry. I use manual to force the pump to come on once every few weeks to make sure it doesn't dry out.


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

RVGRINGO said:


> 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.


You're right. The only advantage in having a valve you can turn off is that if you want to clean the tinako, you can just shut the fill valve to the tinako, use all the water in it, then clean it.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Having just sold my house in Nayarit I am loving this discussion...I'm sitting in San Mateo, California with 70 PSI of snow melt water from Yosemite and no cistern or roof tank............


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

chicois8 said:


> Having just sold my house in Nayarit I am loving this discussion...I'm sitting in San Mateo, California with 70 PSI of snow melt water from Yosemite and no cistern or roof tank............


Enjoy the cost of living as well.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Zorro2017 said:


> Enjoy the cost of living as well.


Perhaps chicois8 is one of those lucky souls who has no need to count his pennies!


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Bet you the cost of living is higher in Mexico, I do not even know how many pennies I have.......LOL


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

Zorro2017 said:


> Enjoy the cost of living as well.


If you think traffic is bad in Cuerna-baches (Bache is a pothole) drive in the Sf bay area. 

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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

surabi said:


> You're right. The only advantage in having a valve you can turn off is that if you want to clean the tinako, you can just shut the fill valve to the tinako, use all the water in it, then clean it.


True, but you can accomplish exactly the same thing by simply turning off the aljibe‘s pressure pump. Once the pressure drops, the tinaco‘s check valve will open and you will be depleting just the tinaco. :thumb:


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

RVGRINGO said:


> True, but you can accomplish exactly the same thing by simply turning off the aljibe‘s pressure pump. Once the pressure drops, the tinaco‘s check valve will open and you will be depleting just the tinaco. :thumb:


Okay, but once you've then used all the water in the tinako and set about cleaning it, wouldn't that mean that the pressure pump, now turned off until the cleaning is finished, would prevent you from having any water coming out of your in-house faucets?


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

chicois8 said:


> Bet you the cost of living is higher in Mexico, I do not even know how many pennies I have.......LOL


That is hilarious. California just keeps on raising taxes on everything because they are so buried in debt and there is no end in sight.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Zorro2017 said:


> That is hilarious. California just keeps on raising taxes on everything because they are so buried in debt and there is no end in sight.


You do not have to knock a place just because you can not afford to live there...


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

chicois8 said:


> You do not have to knock a place just because you can not afford to live there...


I had the opportunity to transfer there with my company when I was working but I wouldn't live in California* if they paid me* just to live there, but you can certainly have it, to each his own.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

surabi said:


> Okay, but once you've then used all the water in the tinako and set about cleaning it, wouldn't that mean that the pressure pump, now turned off until the cleaning is finished, would prevent you from having any water coming out of your in-house faucets?


Of course. However, all of our outside faucets in gardens, patios and garages, were direct from the city supply and independent of the pressure system or the tinaco. As such, we still had water available for the cleaning, or other things. The best of all worlds, and a design that never let us down. Since there were patios adjacent to all parts of the house, water was never far away.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

chicois8 said:


> Having just sold my house in Nayarit I am loving this discussion...I'm sitting in San Mateo, California with 70 PSI of snow melt water from Yosemite and no cistern or roof tank............


So, Chicois, will you still be spending part of the year in Mexico, or are you staying put NOB?


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

chicois8 said:


> You do not have to knock a place just because you can not afford to live there...


I think Zorro was arguing the fact that you stated that the Bay Area was cheaper than Mexico, troll bait if I have ever seen it....
Take a jab at low income, on a forum where one reason people are here is to find affordable alternative

Just stating the obvious...

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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

ElPocho said:


> I think Zorro was arguing the fact that you stated that the Bay Area was cheaper than Mexico, troll bait if I have ever seen it....
> Take a jab at low income, on a forum where one reason people are here is to find affordable alternative
> 
> Just stating the obvious...
> ...


1. I wrote "'Bet you the cost of living is higher in Mexico"" I meant between the USA and Mexico. Nothing about it being cheaper...
2. I can not help it if some people have to migrate to an area that is cheaper to live because they can not afford the USA. I am here because I love the people of Mexico but can afford to keep my house on the San Francisco Peninsula ... 


sent from my Apple Computer...


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

chicois8 said:


> 1. I wrote "'Bet you the cost of living is higher in Mexico"" I meant between the USA and Mexico. Nothing about it being cheaper...
> 
> sent from my Apple Computer...


I'm confused. If the cost of living is higher in Mexico, then you're saying it is cheaper to live in the States. Correct?


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

chicois8 said:


> 1. I wrote "'Bet you the cost of living is higher in Mexico"" I meant between the USA and Mexico. Nothing about it being cheaper...
> 2. I can not help it if some people have to migrate to an area that is cheaper to live because they can not afford the USA. I am here because I love the people of Mexico but can afford to keep my house on the San Francisco Peninsula ...
> 
> 
> sent from my Apple Computer...


Do you judge everyone like this and just assume they are poor and "have to migrate" here because they cannot afford the USA?" My wife is a Mexican National and her family lives here, she does not like the USA, I brought her there for six months and she couldn't wait to return. She found the people there to be extremely judgmental and rude, as is currently being demonstrated.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

ojosazules11 said:


> So, Chicois, will you still be spending part of the year in Mexico, or are you staying put NOB?


Yes, I am leaving next week for Tonala, Jalisco...My adopted Mexican family invited me for Dia de los Muertos as 99 year old abuelita passed... 
I still have an organic vegetable ranch near San Miguel de Allende, although I do not run day to day operations I have to check on it frequently.......
So to answer I will be in Mexico until March...


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

Isla Verde said:


> I'm confused. If the cost of living is higher in Mexico, then you're saying it is cheaper to live in the States. Correct?


You aren't confused, it is a false statement.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Zorro2017 said:


> Do you judge everyone like this and just assume they are poor and "have to migrate" here because they cannot afford the USA?" My wife is a Mexican National and her family lives here, she does not like the USA, I brought her there for six months and she couldn't wait to return. She found the people there to be extremely judgmental and rude, as is currently being demonstrated.


I wrote "" some people" I did not write everyone, you did...


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

chicois8 said:


> I wrote "" some people" I did not write everyone, you did...


Excuse me, your comment was in response to what I said about the cost of living, "some people" like to brag about their money, some don't.


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

chicois8 said:


> You do not have to knock a place just because you can not afford to live there...


And you did say "I" couldn't afford to live there. My dislike of California has nothing to do with money.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Zorro2017 said:


> Excuse me, your comment was in response to what I said about the cost of living, "some people" like to brag about their money, some don't.



My bad, when you wrote cost of living my brain changed it to inflation rate, so that is why I wrote it is higher in Mexico than the USA......
I do not brag about my money but I do answer questions honestly...Isla asked me about pennies and I answered I do not know how many pennies I have, although it is a beautiful collection going back to the first small cent in 1857...
Maybe you should chill, hit some moto and relax......


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

I think we all should chill out and enjoy the day, no matter where we are.


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## josekoko (May 25, 2017)

surabi said:


> 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 heard it's a good idea to do this in Flint, Michigan and some areas in Texas, too, wherein fracking has caused natural gas and other sundry liquids to enter the water supply


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