Rainy Season and water filter
As I might have mentioned, this is the rainy season. We had a fair amount of steady rain on Monday and Tuesday last week to fully saturate the soil. On Wednesday it rained hard most of the day causing flooding in the valleys and coastal areas. The national stadium area was flooded enough to move an event to the following week.
I’m near the top of a mountain so I don’t have to worry much about flooding. Some of the storm drains and streams in the area overflowed and washed over the road, but nothing serious.
The route I traveled to St. George’s to attend a Peace Corps meeting on Friday didn’t have any major problems. On the trip back along the south eastern road I noticed about six slides covering at least half of the road – mainly slide dirt and rocks along with trees that had toppled onto the roadway – two days after the heavy rain. Facebook also reminded me that there were slides along my road in Dominica one year ago, although those were cleaned up in less than a day. Grenada has more roads and I’m presuming other places had more issues.
None of these were really very serious, just a slight issue for traffic. Something like the “beware falling rocks” signs we have in some parts of the states. Being in the middle of a crowded bus I couldn't get any good pictures.
Our tap water comes from a river just up the hill and the system is fairly old. We have been told that we will get a new system, but for now we wait. During heavy rains we might notice that our water is brown before they turn off the system.
We can be without water for several days depending on the weather. People store up water for this eventuality. I’m lucky in that I’ve got a large water tank. My water was off from Wednesday afternoon until Friday morning.
Even under normal conditions the water supply has particulates in the water. I know this because Peace Corps provides ceramic water filters for the volunteers. I had a similar filter in Ghana for the borehole water.
The normal quality of the tap water means that in the best of times I need to clean my filter every other time I fill the top. I typically let my filtered water go down to near the end before I fill the top portion. This allows me to completely fill the top and use the entire length of the filter. It takes less than six hours for most of it to filter through.
If I would kept the bottom topped up then I would be adding a little water each time or so and only using to lower part of the filter. This would then clog up the bottom third rather quickly and I would need to be cleaning the filter more often.
Each volunteer has their own method for water filtration. I suppose some people become acclimated to the water and skip the filter. Some people might supplement the filtered water with the bottled variety.
Everyone has tap water on Grenada although from the different water subsystems, some are better than others. In Ghana volunteers had tap water, river water, rain water, (open) well water, and borehole water. Borehole water was typically pretty good.
This is my second Peace Corps tour and both times I’ve had water filters. I presume most African volunteers and those in the Americas have water filters but perhaps some in Eastern Europe and the Far East might not need them. Peace Corps does care about the health of the volunteers.
I’m glad I have mine, particularly during this rainy season. That and the water tank.
Love always,
John
I’m near the top of a mountain so I don’t have to worry much about flooding. Some of the storm drains and streams in the area overflowed and washed over the road, but nothing serious.
The route I traveled to St. George’s to attend a Peace Corps meeting on Friday didn’t have any major problems. On the trip back along the south eastern road I noticed about six slides covering at least half of the road – mainly slide dirt and rocks along with trees that had toppled onto the roadway – two days after the heavy rain. Facebook also reminded me that there were slides along my road in Dominica one year ago, although those were cleaned up in less than a day. Grenada has more roads and I’m presuming other places had more issues.
None of these were really very serious, just a slight issue for traffic. Something like the “beware falling rocks” signs we have in some parts of the states. Being in the middle of a crowded bus I couldn't get any good pictures.
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| Rain down the street |
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| More rain |
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| This was one of the drains that washed over |
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| Not exactly water for pasta. Maybe I could think I'm having whole wheat pasta :-? |
We can be without water for several days depending on the weather. People store up water for this eventuality. I’m lucky in that I’ve got a large water tank. My water was off from Wednesday afternoon until Friday morning.
 |
| My water tank is off to the right |
Water filter
Even under normal conditions the water supply has particulates in the water. I know this because Peace Corps provides ceramic water filters for the volunteers. I had a similar filter in Ghana for the borehole water.
 |
| This water filter is much larger than the one in Ghana. This holds maybe 15 liters |
The normal quality of the tap water means that in the best of times I need to clean my filter every other time I fill the top. I typically let my filtered water go down to near the end before I fill the top portion. This allows me to completely fill the top and use the entire length of the filter. It takes less than six hours for most of it to filter through.
If I would kept the bottom topped up then I would be adding a little water each time or so and only using to lower part of the filter. This would then clog up the bottom third rather quickly and I would need to be cleaning the filter more often.
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| Looking inside the top. Time to clean the filter |
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| Yes, this is supposed to be white |
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| That's a little better |
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| OK, now I can filter some more water. |
Everyone has tap water on Grenada although from the different water subsystems, some are better than others. In Ghana volunteers had tap water, river water, rain water, (open) well water, and borehole water. Borehole water was typically pretty good.
 |
| My water supply in Ghana |
This is my second Peace Corps tour and both times I’ve had water filters. I presume most African volunteers and those in the Americas have water filters but perhaps some in Eastern Europe and the Far East might not need them. Peace Corps does care about the health of the volunteers.
I’m glad I have mine, particularly during this rainy season. That and the water tank.
 |
| 400 gallons. Enough for a small African village. |
Love always,
John
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