Pumping Water

Water is a very precious commodity on Bequia, and needs to be used carefully. The island depends on the collection and saving of rain-water, water that has to last throughout the dry season. This precious sky juice falls onto the roof into guttering, and is then guided from the guttering into the main water tank.  Nowadays pretty well all of the newer homes have electric pumps, making access to the water easy – perhaps TOO easy! When I first lived on Bequia water had to be pumped from the cistern to an overhead tank manually, a rather laborious chore that was necessary in order to have running water in the house.

I lived in several different houses during my first few years on Bequia, and they all had manual pumps. Running out of water while washing my hair meant a soapy trip to the pump handle, and I soon learned to pump enough to see me through the day. I certainly didn’t use much while bathing, without pressure it was more of a trickle than a shower, but I always turned the water off to soap myself, then on again to rinse. Water was (and still IS) precious, and not to be wasted! I grew used to pumping water into the overhead tank and did so twice a day, it was a mindless chore that ensured running water in the house and also, of course, provided me with daily arm exercises!

When Mac and I moved into a new house his mother had built on Family Hill I was elated by the pressure pump, no more showers that were mere trickles and no more manual pumping! It was a real treat, but with so much pressure behind the water we decided that an electric water heater was a necessity. This to me was the ultimate – a hot shower was luxurious indeed. A pressurized water pump and an electric heater spoiled us for life, and made me forget the practical aspects of manual pumping. The pressure also made it easier to use more water than necessary, one of the dangers of using such a pump.

When Mac built our house at Belmont, he ensured that we had not one but TWO water tanks – the roofs were large and the guttering therefore generous. He had already planted a garden that would need watering plus, as he said at the time, you can never have too much water on Bequia.  The electric pump was housed in a special room under the larger tank, and worked its magic by supplying water into the home on demand. With good pressure and plenty of water in the tanks all was well as long as we had electricity.

When I married Nik in 1995 he immediately spotted the flaw in having just an electric water pump; it didn’t make sense to have no access to water if the power went off and, being a practical (to put it mildly!) man, he decided to remedy the situation. He installed a large black tank on the land he had purchased next to the house, and rigged a timer switch to the water pump. The water used in our house now comes from that black tank, not directly from the cistern, and the timer switch ensures that it’s kept full. I have been grateful for that switch many a time; whenever Vinlec has scheduled outages we still have running water, it’s quite a bit like the old-fashioned system of filling the overhead tank minus the manual pumping, simple but effective.

Last week Bequia had a short but violent storm that knocked out the electricity for (at least in our case) a couple of days. The unexpectedly strong wind gusts brought a lot of trees down onto power lines, and Vinlec had their work cut out for them restoring electricity to the island. I worried about the food I had stored in the freezers and refrigerator, and slapped myself silly at night because of the mosquitoes. However, I did NOT have to worry about a lack of running water, we were careful in order to make it last through the power outage but at least it was THERE. I figure a lot of Bequia folks didn’t have running water in their homes due to the absence of electricity. Perhaps that freak storm will spur others into taking a leaf from Nik’s book, an overhead tank that is always full is an excellent idea! Sometimes simple is better………