We have recently re-located to the periphery areas of Damascus. I guess it would be an equivalent of Brooklyn to Manhattan. We reach the general area after a brief 10-minute stretch of highway and enter into another city setting but it is just a bit more spacious. We have views of snow-capped mountains, olive fields, herds of sheep, and large apartment buildings. When we arrived at our friends house there was something that left a greater impression on me than the scenery. I noticed that all the outdoor taps and the water tanks are all under lock and key. We soon understood why. On our second day here, the water tank ran dry.
Typically, there are government pipes that run for a few hours daily providing drinking water and there is another set of pipes that run all day long for a small fee. We went 48 hours without a drop of water from the pipes. We had some bottles of water stored that we drank from and used as sparingly as possible. It was the first time where we really had to analyze our water use. We couldn’t cook pasta for dinner; we determined that we waste too much water that we could be drinking. Washing dishes seemed wasteful; we put all the dishes in a basin so we could then re-use the dirty dishwater to flush the toilet. Every drop matters.
On our third day without water, I noticed a man with a big tank piping something in next door. It was in the type of vehicle that the neighborhood gas dealers used so I had to ask to check what he was selling. He ran a hose up to the tanks on the roof and started filling them up. For about $5.50 we were able to fill up the tanks and it was a great blessing. We filled up buckets to take showers with right away. We are masters in bucket showers from our time in the Philippines so we are able to bathe using very little water, about half a bucket each.
From our chat with the waterman, there hasn’t been much rain in the past 3 years. This year, the water shut off has arrived more than a month early. I guess this is just the way of life in arid countries. The temperature is rising and the amount of water that we have is decreasing and precious. The absence of water gives you an appreciation of how valuable it is by making you realize how miserable life is without it. I now understand the idea of putting locks on the water tanks and taps, trying to protect this valuable resource.
I got a bit angry one day when we went into a rich district in Damascus and saw a rare site, GRASS. The sprinkler system had been tampered with so instead of the gentle mist, there were small geysers. My first thought was “where is my water bottle?” so I could finally fill it up. My second thought was “our entire neighborhood gets water turned on once a week for about an hour and here they are shooting water out full blast for an apartment building’s front lawn”. It seemed like a cruel joke. I think next time we go to the rich areas of Damascus I’ll not only fill my water bottle but I’ll also bring a bar of soap.
