Working On The Water Line
Yesterday when we got home from the art exhibition we noticed 3 guys working in the street. Well, 1 guy was digging and 2 were watching. They had a hole dug in the middle of the street close to where the water shut off valve is. We asked them if there was a problem with the water and one of them told me it would be on, ahorita--soon, then he said un rato--in a while. Hmmm.....OK. It is not really a problem for us anyway as we have a tinaco--a water holding tank on the roof. Just curiousity more than anything.We carried on home and watched them from the patio and window. It turned out they were laying a new underground water line from the street to our landlords home. They looked very hot so Roy took them some water to drink and they were happy about that.
1 of the fellows took a pick and began to dig a shallow little trench maybe 4 inches deep, from the street over towards the house. A slightly different operation than in Canada. There, backhoes would have been brought in and a 9 foot deep trench dug, so that the lines wouldn't freeze. Not necessary here. Lots of the water lines run right on top of the ground here.We asked them if they wanted us to move the car as it appeared that the closest route would go under the car. No, no, they said, they were just going to string it over the car, lots of ha, ha, ha. Seriously though, no, they did not need the car moved. They went around the back of the car and then up to the landlords house. They must have needed a fitting as the landlord took off and returned in a few minutes and handed them something. Work proceeded, the shallow trench was filled in, the hole was filled in and the men disappeared. Job completed.
One thing that we did notice after, was that the new pipe had been joined into the line in front of the underground water shut off box in the street. There have been some problems previously with the water valve mysteriously getting shut off in this underground box. This should alleviate that problem, ingenious isn't it?
