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First, Blame the trabalenguas, tongue twister, title on emromesco, who said that water will be the oil of the 21st century.

Second, forgive the undramatic photograph; not much I can do with a working water well and its pumping warehouse. I compensate with all the wonderful researched information below.

Third, a few Spanish-English word equivalents are in order. I will list the words in Spanish and you gals and guys provide the English words, okay: agua, pozo, poza, manto acuifero, bomba, chorro, grifo, pila, lavadero, tanque, agua subterranea, lluvia, filtración, caudal, pluvial, cubeta, fuente, nacimiento, manantial, piscina, agua pura, agua purificada, agua corriente, río, lago, laguna.

Okay, to finish the first part of the water series, I have several questions and answers from two distinct locations in Guatemala: Jalapa and La Antigua. The Jalapa answers were provided by Ted from Wells of Hope. The answers from La Antigua Guatemala were provided by my dear friend J.M. “Chema” Magaña; a regular fuente, source for authoritative information regarding all things about La Antigua Guatemala.

Right after the questions and answers, I share with you an anecdote by long-time loyal reader of AntiguaDailyPhoto and member of the La Antigua Guatemala City Council in Spanish and my best effort at translating it into English. Enjoy!

How much does it cost to dig a well, an average of course?

• Jalapa — There are fundamentally two parts to a successful well. The drilling of the well is one challenge and the mechanics of bringing the water to the surface is another. There are numerous variables when drilling a well which will have a direct effect on the cost of the drilling process. The diameter of the well, the depth of the well, the amount of casing, the size of casing, the geological formation all have a huge impact on the overall cost. Due to the geological diversity that make up the drilling conditions in the various parts of Guatemala, a well can cost, on average, between $50,000 to $150,000.
• La Antigua Guatemala — If it is a mechanically drilled well as the above, the average price is $20,000. However, in La Antigua Guatemala manually digged rustic wells can be had for a few thousand quetzales, depending on the depth.

What are some of depths of wells around Guatemala?

• Jalapa — We have drilled wells from 200 feet to 1,500 feet.
• La Antigua Guatemala — The water tables in La Antigua Guatemala are near the surface, so for a manually digged well, water can be found between 3 and 8 meters ( 10 and 25 feet). In some places of San Pedro El Panorama, water was found at 50 centimeters (20 inches) of depth. For large amounts of water for a residential neighborhood, you may need to mechanically drilled until 100 meters (325 feet), but you are guaranteed a large recovery rate.

What kind of water tables and underground beds does Guatemala have?

• Jalapa — Primarily drilling in the mountain region of Jalapa, the abundant aquifers have been found in gravel beds well below the hard volcanic rock that must first be penetrated.
• La Antigua Guatemala — The water tables in La Antigua Guatemala are very near the surface; between 3 and 8 meters ( 10 and 25 feet). However for abundant aquifers, you must drill sometimes until 100 meters. The entire Panchoy Valley used to be a lake, so almost everywhere you drill you will find plentiful water.

What kind of treatments are necessary to make water potable?

• Jalapa — The aquifers that we have encountered in the rural communities of the Jalapa region have not yet been disturbed by the contaminants of humanity. The water sources that we have found have been free of pollutants and therefore quite potable.
• La Antigua Guatemala — Often, water found at the shallow depths can be contaminated so it needs to undergo purification before is potable. For underground water found much deeper, close to 100 meters (325 feet), you are almost guaranteed to draw pure water.

Is water from a well potable?

• Jalapa — Generally speaking, yes.
• La Antigua Guatemala — Much of it depends on the results of the water analysis by a professional laboratory. But, generally speaking chlorine and sometimes hydrochloric acid in the recommended doses by a professional laboratory, as well as filters for organic sediments and other such things. Often, water from deep wells is drawn quite potable already.

Here’s some additional information shared by Antonio Palomo, long-time loyal reader of AntiguaDailyPhoto and member of the La Antigua Guatemala City Council.

Te cuento que mientras viví en San Juan del Obispo, varias familias NO deseaban el agua municipal y no tenian agua corriente en sus casas, pues sólo hacian uso del agua de los chorros [ed. grifos] públicos. Intrigado por esto, pregunte a tres familias vecinas y la respuesta fue que el agua de los chorros públicos era mejor por que era nacida [ed. de manantial].

Let me tell you that when I lived in San Juan del Obispo, several families DID NOT want the municipal water and they did not had running water in their houses since they only used the public water faucets. Intrigued about this, I asked three neigboring families and their answers was that the water from the public faucets was better because it came from natural springs.

Investigando un poco mas, es decir, preguntando por allí, descubrí que los chorros públicos, por lo menos en San Juan [ed. del Obispo] y San Pedro [ed. Las Huertas], se alimentan de nacimientos naturales que son tan antiguos como los pueblos mismos.

Investigating a little further, in other words, just asking around, I discovered that indeed the public faucets are fed by natural springs as old as the towns themselves, at least in San Juan del Obispo and San Pedro Las Huertas.

El agua de San Juan proviene del cerro frente al pueblo hacia el oriente, yo visité el nacimiento y los hombres del pueblo tienen que hacer una faena anual para limpiar el nacimiento y otros arreglos. El agua de San Pedro, proviene de los nacimientos del Pilar, cerca de San Cristobal el Bajo, y es conducida hasta el pueblo, ahora en tuberia de pvc, en vez de los caños coloniales de barro. Y sí, el agua nacida sabe mejor, sólo basta probar el incansable chorro de la pila de San Pedro Las Huertas para comprobarlo.

The water from San Juan comes from a hill in front of the town to the east, I visited the spring myself and the men from the town are required annually to donate one day of work for cleaning and maintenance of the spring. The water of San Pedro comes from the springs of El Pilar, near San Cristobal el Bajo, and it is driven to San Pedro, now with PVC pipes, instead of the colonial ceramic tubes. And yes, the water from the springs tastes better, just try the tireless flow from the water tank in San Pedro Las Huertas to confirm it.

The venerable colonial pila from La Antigua Guatemala finds a new use as decoration in a fast food restaurant.

What’s a pila (pee-lah), I hear you ask? simple, the omnipresent pila guatemalteca is basically a water tank and one or two sinks or washbasins for doing dishes and washing the clothes. You have seen a colonial-styled pila before as part of La Casa Antigüeña series and you have also recently seen the public washbasins. So you now know how pilas are basically smaller versions of the public washbasins and water tanks, right?

I bet you never thought a colonial utilitarian washbasin and water tank could be used as decoration for a upscale, hi-tech wireless internet, coffee shop. I think it works and it does especially well, since the water is running all the time between the main two water compartments and adds a wonderful relaxing sound.

What do you think? Do you want to have a pila guatemalteca at your home? I take orders!

The Panchoy Valley, where La Antigua Guatemala is located, used to be a lake at the time the Conquistadores arrived and when they founded the second Santiago de Guatemala in the Almolonga Valley, now Ciudad Vieja which is about two miles from Antigua. Then the Panchoy Lake basin was fed by the Pensativo River. The Panchoy Lake was filled with packed soil and stones as the third Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala was founded in 1541 and the city began to grow. The last remains of the Pensativo River can still be observed today along the Calle Chipilapa during the rainy season.

Also, both Panchoy and Almolonga valleys are surrounded by three volcanoes and mountain ranges which served as funnels during the rainy season collecting tremendous amounts of water; much more than can be consumed by all the trees and plants on the hills around La Antigua Guatemala, which by the way, remain evergreen year round.

These are some of the reasons why there’s an abundant supply of water in and around La Antigua Guatemala. This ample source, fuente in Spanish, of water can also help explain why there are thousands of fountains, fuentes in Spanish, and búcaros, half fountains embedded on walls, in and around La Antigua Guatemala. It seems like every restaurant has at least one fountain, even the fast food restaurants. You should browse the Fountains and Gardens category to see over 35 samples taken over the three years of existence and 1215 entries of AntiguaDailyPhoto. I hope you enjoy the fountain tour through time.

In Guatemala exists a near monopoly of bottled water called Salvavidas; surely you remember the photo of the pile 5-gallon jugs known in Guatemalan Spanish as garrafones, right? Until recently you had no choice, but to buy your bottled water from Salvavidas or some of the tiny competitors who deliver the 5-gallon jugs from far away places. As the delivery of the 5-gallon jars and smaller water bottles began to turn expensive, a few local water stations gushed over night.

The Salvavidas 5-gallon bottles could be had for about Q10 in 2001 and 8 years later the same bottles cost Q16. Most of the expense of the water is actually the delivery since every day the Salvavidas trucks depart from zona 2 in the north part of Guatemala City to bring the bottled water to all the corners of Guatemala, including La Antigua Guatemala.

Local water station, like Hunapu pictured here, sell their 5-gallon water refills for Q8 at the stations and Q10 if it is delivered at your home. Volcán de Agua or Water Volcano‘s name is actually Hunajpu: thus Hunapu is synonymous with water. As you can see, there are substantial savings to be had if you buy your water locally and your consumer habits inflict less contamination to the environment as well. It’s a win win situation. Nevertheless, water stations are not popular yet in Guatemala since Salvavidas maintains a permanent negative advertising campaign to discredit and discourage local water stations.

In many places of the world, like Bundanoon, bottled water is being banned, but in Guatemala that’s something is never going to happen so long the tap water is not potable. There are many reasons why tap water in Guatemala is not potable. One of them is the fact the water is subsided by many local municipalities and thus local governments do not see fit to spend even more to make water potable. They do however make the effort to make it potable, at least, at the water reservoir tanks.

Tubed water delivery is measured by pajas, straws is a literal translation, each paja being 60,000 liters; that’s 3,160 5-gallon jugs (or about 16,000 gallons). Most municipalities charge a few quetzales for 1/3 or 2/3 of a paja (20,000 and 40,000 liters respectively). For instance, La Antigua Guatemala’s Municipality charges between Q15 and Q30 monthly per 1/3 or 2/3 of a paja of water. In the village where I live, the Municipal fee is only Q15 in the village. However, in the gated residential neighborhood where we live, we have our own private well and all the neighbors have to pay Q100 monthly for a maximum of 40,000 liters of water. You can compare between Q15 and Q100 on each side of the fence; the water is distributed by the Municipality is thus subsided. I am sure the water is not potable on both sides of the fence.

How much is your monthly water bill in your neck of woods? Also, please, give your feedback regarding the water series thus far.

Below you can zoom into some of the steps to refill the 5-gallon water jugs, which include, soap washing the interior of the bottles and then rising before filling them with purified water.

Today, as in colonial times, these public water tanks and washbasins serve as the places for doing the laundry and for water distribution. Furthermore, public laundry washbasins (sometimes river or lake shores) serve as the gathering place for news, gossip and community building through the interactions that take place. Public washbasins could be considered the first news broadcasting sites or social networks such as Facebook or Twitter; computers are not required. In many places in Guatemala this stills holds true.

As I took these pictures, I took the time to talk to several of the women doing the laundry and I asked what were some of the reasons for utilizing the public washbasins even though most of them have running water at home. These are some of the answers:

• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins are more comfortable because they are larger and the water is closer.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins I get to see and talk to my friends and neighbors.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins have plentiful of free water.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins I get to see things and people, sort of free entertainment.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins provide less distractions than being at home doing the laundry.
• At the lavaderos públicos, public washbasins the temperatures are cooler and thus more comfortable.
• Los lavaderos públicos, public washbasins are my only choice since I do not have running water at home.

This morning Kwallek asked the following questions:

Things that matter with water wells: what are they casing off the bore with, is it cased all the way to the water table, is it potable the way it comes out of the ground, what is the recovery rate, how deep is the water and depth or thickness of the water table.

And tonight we already have the answers, thanks to Ted from Wells of Hope.

Steel well casing is used. Because of the earthquakes that are possible in Guatemala, the well should be completely cased to the aquifer, which will prevent the well from collapsing if there were tremors in the area. We have found that the water in the mountains of Jalapa is very potable directly from the well. A 24 hour pump test is done after drilling a well. This helps us to determine how much water we can safely remove from the aquifer without extensively drawing down the water table or drying the aquifer. Every well is different when it comes to recovery rate. It is very difficult to determine the dimensions of the water table. It is only through the use of very expensive measuring equipment and extensive study that one can propose a dimension of a water table. Our volunteer program does not have the necessary finances in order to do this.

What do think of public washbasins and water tanks?

These recently renovated colonial-styled public water faucets can be found in and around many of the villages of La Antigua Guatemala. Like I said yesterday, the presence of these chorros as the water faucets are called in Guatemala, is a sure sign that there are still houses in the villages without piped water service.

The woman in yesterday’s picture hauling the water on her head filled her bucket precisely from one of these grifos, which is by the way the proper Spanish word for faucet.

Stephanie requested that we include information on water projects (NGO or otherwise) that could use support. Interesting enough, Revue Magazine, included a profile of Wells of Hope a few months ago as part of the People and Projects series. I thank Stephanie for the suggestion and I will try to find other similar projects to highlight during the water series.

Here’s some information I grabbed from the Wells of Hope web site:

Wells of hope is determined to make a difference! Overcoming many roadblocks, hurdles and frustrations, the Wells of Hope Group has successfully transported it’s own drilling equipment to Jalapa, one of the poorest regions of Guatemala, Central America.

In this mountainous terrain, the women are enslaved to walking anywhere from two to ten kilometres per day in search of precious, life-giving water.

They fulfill this backbreaking task by carrying on their heads twenty litre buckets of dirty, bacteria infested water over steep, mountainous terrain, to their mud-brick, one room home This contaminated water, the only source of water available to these poor, mountain communities, ends the lives of many a child before he or she sees it’s third birthday. Wells of Hope has successfully drilled many deep-water wells in these water-starved communities, ranging in depth from six hundred to one thousand two hundred feet. (continue reading at Wells of Hope)

I will write to Wells of Hope to find out how much does it cost to drill a well, for instance?

All Guatemalans, of course, just like the air.

Water belongs to the Guatemalan people and it’s managed by the government; national and local government. In theory, Guatemalans don’t pay for the water itself, but for the distribution system; that is the electricity to pump it and the distribution pipes. The water bill can vary a lot from zone to zone for the same amount of distributed water.

Water is always available in the wealthy neighborhood homes. Water is rarely available in the poor neighborhood homes. Water is not even available in many villages homes. This reality is what brings us to today’s picture. There are several public water faucets located in San Pedro Las Huertas, one the villages that belong to Municipio of La Antigua Guatemala, county in Spanish, pues. That people actually use the public tap water faucets makes me believe that water is not available in all the houses in this aldea, village.

Central America and Guatemala especially have an abundance of water resources, many are groundwater. La Antigua Guatemala is located in a valley irrigated with over six months of a rainy season per year. La Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that collect even more water. Much of this collected rain ends up as groundwater and then pump to municipal water tanks and finally available through the public water distribution system, of which the public water faucets are part of, and then, in some cases, water is hauled home like the image above shows.

I believe I could do an entire series just on water; any of you interested in learning about water rights, water usages, water wells, municipal water, public water distributions, public washbasin water tanks, water stations and bottled water? If we get 15 requests I will take all the photos and research all the information this week; it is up to you.