IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT WATER

Posted by Jane g on October 10, 2009, 10:21 pm
187.146.88.156

Morgan, the person in charge of our water, asked me to post this in an effort to encourage those who haven’t yet paid their water bill this year to please bring their accounts up to date as soon as possible. Of the almost 1100 homes and businesses which receive city water in La Manzanilla, to date only 35% have paid their water bill for 2009. (Payment is due each year in January.) Revenue from water bills is used to maintain and repair the various pumps that get our water out of the wells and through the pipes to your home, plus the electricity to run those pumps. This dry summer has been especially demanding of the pumps. They’ve had to strain to reach low water levels. Sometimes the pumps don’t work (and not because the vandal stole the handle) because they burn out, and sometimes there’s not enough pressure to get the water where it needs to go. The cost for a recent repair to our 40 HP pump, which serves much of the north end of town, was $42,000 pesos. Labor (mano de obra) is over $3000 pesos each time a pump has to be pulled out of and put back into the ground. The latest electric bill to run all the pumps was $42,000 pesos. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out how 65% of our water bills going unpaid against the expense of keeping everything running adversely affects water operations. And it’s not even tourist season yet! Payments should be made at Morgan’s home, Calle Tamarindo #84 (Bicicletas Guadalupe). If you’re not certain how much you owe, you can call him at 351-5181. And please share this information with your Spanish-speaking neighbors who don’t read this message board. Gringos aren’t the only ones who are in arrears. Water is a very important issue this year. For more on the effects of our lower-than-average rainfall this summer, including the need for water conservation, please see La Manzanilla Memo in the current edition (10/10) of the Guadalajara Colony Reporter, on line at www.guadalajarareporter.com (click on Expat Living, Pacific Coast and scroll down) or in the hard copy of the paper available at Hawaii in Melaque.

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