Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

One interesting phenomenon about living in the Thailand is the water shortage.  Because the infrastructure can't seem to keep pace with development, there are frequent water shut-offs, with no notification.  In the month of March, our city water was shut off 4 times.

Fortunately, we have a very large storage tank built under our house, which stores approximately 2000 litres of water.  When the city water is flowing, the tank is always full, but our garden watering can deplete nearly half the tank in one evening cycle.  Of the 4 times we have lost our city water, our tank was empty because of the garden watering.

 If you find yourself with an empty tank, there is a second phenomenon in Thailand, and that is the water truck.  The water truck drives around, filling tanks when ordered.  If you call during the day, the truck usually arrives within a couple of hours, and it takes about 30 minutes to completely fill an empty tank, for a mere 400 baht, which is the equivalent to 12 dollars.  Naturally, our tank ran out both times in the evening, the tank truck couldn't get to our house until the next morning, so we spent each evening relying on our drinking water.

In Thailand, unless you have a sophisticated filtration system, you cannot drink the tap water.  We have a free-standing hot and cold water dispenser in our kitchen, which we use for our drinking water and cooking, including washing fruits and vegetables, making pasta and rice.

Our bottled drinking water is delivered by a local vendor who has a shop down the street.  They come once every two weeks and deliver three, 19 litre bottles, for our drinking and cooking needs at a cost of 105 baht for all three bottles (equivalent to about $3).

Along with our personal water issues, comes Songkran, the Water Festival in Thailand!  Songkran is the Thai New Year, which recognizes the "best season" in Thailand, spring, new growth, flowers, and water is an important part of this festival.  Historically, during Songkran, water was used to clean statues of Buddha, and used by Thais to honor their elders by washing their hands in scented water.  The festival has now become one big excuse for a massive water fight.  Weeks before Songkran, stores begin stocking up with water pistols and super soakers, used by both children and adults.  People will sit on the street curbs with plastic bins of water, waiting for cars to drive by.  One can't walk around the downtown streets of any city in Thailand without getting a good soaking during the Songkran festival.  In Pattaya, the festival was celebrated on Thursday, April 19th.  The main streets were bumper to bumper traffic, with people spraying water from their cars and trucks onto anyone who came into their range.  It's a bit like the Woodward Dream Cruise gone crazy wet!