DSTC...Cheaper To Drink Rum

One of my favorite parts of the book, Don’t Stop the Carnival, is when they forget to order water from the water barge, and it passes them by. This actually happens in the islands that rely on rain for their water supply. Most houses have gutter systems that direct the rain into large storage tanks called cisterns. Most are made of concrete and built right into the foundation of a dwelling, but some of the newer places have them made out of plastic. During the summertime when there are almost daily rain showers or thunderstorms, the cisterns fill up. During the winter dry season, the water level continues to go down, and it if it not replenished, it can become a crisis. Here in Hope Town on Elbow Cay there are two options. One is to hire the local water barge that has two huge tanks of water that can be pumped into a water truck, and then pumped into the cistern. The other option is to drill a bore hole that goes through the rock and enters the layer of saltwater, and turn it into fresh water by the reverse osmosis process. There is one individual on the island that does this in quantity and sells it to homeowners, filling up his water truck and then bringing it to the other houses on the island. This is always interesting since the streets are so narrow.

Right now you can see hoses laying across the sidewalks and roads, either waiting to hook up to the water truck, or to share the water with neighbors in need.

Being careful of every drop of water that we use is not a bad thing since it is always wise to conserve this commodity. However, it is the exact opposite up in Ticonderoga, N.Y. in the Adirondack Mountains. The village borders 32 mile long Lake George that is approximately the same size of the Sea of Abaco, only filled with drinking water. This is where the village water supply comes from, and because it is fed by streams and springs, it appears that there is a never ending supply of clear fresh water. The residents are charged a flat rate for the water consumption, and our summer house up there doesn’t even have a meter to keep track of the use.

Whether it’s salt water that we have to turn into drinking water...

or fresh water that we can drink right from the lake...

we always like to go where the water is clear.