The Current System(s) in Nicaragua
While Nicaragua is technically in the tropics and most of the country can be considered tropical rainforest, you'd think water is in abundance right? Well it depends on what you consider as available water. First, it does rain. It rains during the rainy season. In much of the country that means 4 to 6 months of rain. Then in the dry season, no rain. Since people can's survive on no rain for another 6 to 8 months of rain, they need some supplement. As a result, the government with help of many more developed countries have basic public water systems in more urban areas. Meanwhile, the more rural areas rely on wells and direct sources like lakes and rivers.
Public systems in the developing world are pretty rudimentary. That primarily means, they aren't strong enough to pump to all the city area at once. This as a result becomes a rotating system, where someone privy in the city turns a valve at various times in the day to redirect the water to another part of the town. The result, some people get water in the mornings, others in the midday, and others at night. In a greatly growing town, the rotation actually goes through more like 6 different sections. Some of the sections may get water dependent on a more central section, meaning once people have filled their water bins, the pressure will be enough to reach the farther out section. Weird to us, but makes sense to the locals. Much of the time, they provide "potable" water, meaning they've added chlorine and filtered it from the majority of the sand and mud.
Wells on the other hand can be expensive to dig. Even moreso, they can be unreliable if you're subject to severe rainy season/dry season changes. Sadly, some don't really know how close to dig their well to their septic hole, so the majority are not all that clean. In cities, the water system can be more or less reliable and clean places are not available for wells. As a result, people in cities like the one we live in don't have wells.
Basic life then looks simple. Rarely we get to take a running water shower, and bathing more looks like you dip a small bowl in a bucket and douse yourself. We use filters before drinking our water, and washing clothes is best when your water is running because it takes so much. Hot water is a very rare luxury available in nice hotels with those electric heater attachments to the shower nozzle.
When Things Don't Quite Work As They Should
If the pump system goes down for some reason, or simply the 'Water Turner' (as Caressa and I have grown to call the person who magically gives us water by turning the water our direction) gets sick or goes to a party for a few extra hours, we're out of water for a bit.
So what about 'reclamación?' (collecting rainwater) After all, we do live in a rainforest and our town does get 2 meters of rain per year, it makes sense to do that. In reality, it's something people do at the last resort there. While it makes sense to you and me, there's several disadvantages. Firstly, you have to have buckets and a good place to collect it. Not hard, but in a more urban area, you can't just leave a bucket in your front yard, or else you might walk by and someone's 'borrowed' your bucket permanently. Secondly, with all the water comes mosquitoes, and with those mosquitoes, dengue, malaria, and a new one Chikungunya. Because they're such a big deal, the local health department doesn't really let you leave uncovered water sitting around because it becomes a mosquito birthing arena very quickly. While doable, it becomes a more interesting matter to have a screened water bucket to collect water...something that isn't readily available. Thirdly, if the water's been out for a day, it'll usually come back in the next day or two. So people just stock up on water and hope for the best.
So all that said, we're still looking to become better friends with our town's Water Turner. We lived previously in a more rural part of town that was dependent on another section and was up a hill so had lower water pressure. Our worst was three days without water. Once the barrels were dry, that's when you get to decide whether to flush the toilet or to wash two days sweat off before going to bed. My choice, was to flush the toilet. It was a hard decision. Now, we live more centrally and thrive with water usually every day, and sometimes twice a day. It's luxurious! -Tim