Trucked in Water

As most of you that live here in Pattaya know, the continual shut off of your water is is at the very least an inconvience. The shut offs happen with such regularity that one would begin to think that there must be some connection between the city people that control the flow of water and the water truck guys. I recently installed an 8,000 liter undergound tank to see us through the periods of shut offs and the need to call for a water truck delivery after seeing with my own two eyes where the water is coming from.

I recently read a post here on Sawatdee that the water delivered to your home is trucked in from a resivour in Rayon...well my friends, that is total BS. The trucked in water comes from a swamp down on Soi 15. I watch the trucks load up there most everyday. If you too would like to observe your water delivery guy loading his truck just take a three minute drive down Soi 15 and about 200 meters past the huge abandoned condo building take a look to your left. I was unlucky today when I took the pictures..no trucks...but with some luck you can catch you water guy loading up. Enjoy the pictures.

As I've posted before, I've seen some water tanker trucks (suspiciously similar to the one that supplied water to my condo) parked along side of Soi Wat Boon at a road-side "pond" no better than the ones pictured above. I suspect they use ANY watering hole to fill the trucks.

I saw someone write that the trucks pay a fee, or are supposed to pay a fee, to fill up at reservoirs such as Lake Mabprachan (and probably in Rayong?) so it wouldn't be surprising they'd do anything to avoid paying and use any ditch, canal or roadside puddle for free.

On a personal happy note: My condo *finally* connected to the municipal water main out front. There has been a water main running down the soi out front for the entire time the condo building has been here, but they botched up the connection with a too-small pipe or fitting and just never got around to fixing it -- until a couple months ago. Granted, we will probably be subject to tanker trucks again when the water shortages hit Pattaya again this summer, but at least during the winter I can do the laundry and shower with (relatively) clean water.

[puckered_penguin]

Soi 10 Tom. The water mains supply may just not have enough pressure to fill your tank and you might need to install a pump to suck it out from the Patttaya mains supply. This would be in addition to the pump that you use to transfer the water from your storage tank to the faucets in the house.
The sucking pump can be of low wattage.

"dirty water", how is it filtered or cleaned before it reaches the taps - or is it cleaned, I assume you don't have "dirty water" coming through the taps similar to that in those "bogs".

As a matter of fact I did. Often times the shower just stunk to high heavens. I ruined a mattress pad by putting it in the washer on a particularly foul water day -- I threw it out because it depressed me to see a once white pad turn off-white with large brown spots and streaks -- all from the water contamination. Even bleaching it multiple times when the water cleared up a bit couldn't save it.

Theres a little laundry shop on the ground floor, and a business man who lives here told me he had to take his shirts to a laundry in town because the one here couldn't get his shirts and underwear white any more. Luckily I don't own many white clothes.

I have a water filter at the sink with a ceramic and a charcoal filter. The ceramic cartridge wouldn't even last a month some times, even after I learned to scrub it with a brush to extend its life. Often times the screen filters at the faucets and at the washing machine would need to be cleaned of grit several times a week.

Trying to keep the toilet bowl presentable was a real challenge, too.

Thank heavens we are now connected to the municipal water supply! I think it has been three or four months now, and the ceramic cartridge in my kitchen water filter is still working fine.

As most of you that live here in Pattaya know, the continual shut off of your water is is at the very least an inconvience.An Inconvenient Truck?