Friday March 13, 2009
Suva water - silting up your pipes
As part of recent family cost-cutting measures, we got rid of our water dispenser and bought a water filter to make the best of the Suva’s tap water.
The results have been educational.
Here is the ceramic dome in the first stage of the filter at the beginning of the week. Tap water has to seep through the micro-pores in this dome before it gets to the various other stages of the filter.
And here it is after a hard week filtering Suva’s sparkling, treated tap water:
That’s a thick layer of silt people!
Now I’m all for developing resistance to the local bugs by way of a little exposure … but that’s a lot of silt to be gulping down with your daily hydration.
This is the rather basic 14 litre filter I got from Carpenter’s Hardware for about $50.
What about you? Sticking to the tap water? Got a filter? Or do you drink only the purest mineralised water bottled at a natural aquifer fed by dew drops from virgin rainforest?
Update: (15 March) Others have noticed! Seona Smiles column in the Sunday Times this week is dedicated to the art of feeding the filter. Go read it. She has better writing; I have better pictures.
Filed by Jachin Sheehy under Living-in-Fiji
That’s right we really need good filter especially tap water these days not fit for drinking at all with very muddy brown color. We normally drink boil water at home hoping to kill a few germs.
The Suva water at the moment is horrible. The contrast between the top part of our filter and the bottom is unbelievable.
I only drink bottled water but I’m conerned about what you’re showing us… Obviously the people responsible for our water are doing a very shoddy job of ensuring our water is clean and free from crap!
A friend currently based in Lakeba (Lau) sent in this picture: the water supply is obviously managed by the same people … possibly worse than Suva. This layer was silt was built up in 2 days (compare with the 1 week layer in the post)