Thursday, November 6, 2008

Arequipa without water!

So we found out today that the water tank for the building was low. The landlord said there was no water to fill the tanks in the whole neighborhood. But when asked what the problem was or how long it would last, he had no idea. He said that no warning or information was sent out before the shut down.

We found out just a couple hours ago that some other family on the other side of town has also been without water for 6+ hours. I searched Google in English and Spanish to try to find information, but no current information was available.

We called the water company here in Arequipa and they didn't have any information, but gave us 3 other numbers to call. All 3 of those phone numbers were either constantly busy or not answered.

Edit:
I just heard on the local news (TV Peru) that 80% of Arequipa (a city of about 1 million people) is currently without water. They said that a pipe broke (and apparently has no backup) and needs to be repaired. The state run water company (SEDAPAL) has just started setting up to perform repairs. They hope to be able to fix the problem by the morning.

Edit #2:
Thank god they did get it fixed last night. We had water again around 4am. That meant no hot water this morning, but at least we did have drinkable running water. So in the end it was just over 12 hours without water, but the water tank lasted for about 4-6 of those 12 hours. In the end, not all that bad, but I'm certainly glad it wasn't worse.

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