Water,water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

69 days ‘til I’m off to Saba for two weeks. I am looking forward to it besides the fact that it will be eight months since I last saw Fidel.

I like Saba and the Sabans. Sure I’ve only been there twice, but I feel at home and comfortable there. When Fidel reads this he’ll probably think, “yeah – but she hasn’t spent two years here, 24/7”.

I got to thinking about water on Saba, today.

This island is a study of contrasts with respect to water. The little 5 square kilometer island is actually a volcano plunk in the Caribbean, and is surrounded by a zillion square kilometers of water that is undrinkable. Saba has a desalination plant now, but up to a few years ago, besides the rain, the only fresh water on the island came from a couple of small stream. No wells on Saba. Desalinated water is really expensive and only bought when desperate.

Though the top of the island, Mount Scenery, is classed as a tropical jungle, not much further down in elevation the island becomes very much drier.

So all water for drinking, flushing toilettes, showers, laundry, and so on, is from the water collected in the cisterns on each property. Fidel’s landlady has two. The second one was just finished last year and is larger than the first one, which still has three people using it at the moment. They are building a third, I think he said, because they are building another little apartment to rent to med school students. Myself, I think it’s because they know I am coming back for a visit *lol*. However with the typical pace of building anything on the island, it won’t be done until Fidel is ready to retire.

When I am on island, I quickly have to learn or re-learn a totally different approach to water consumption. I have to go from the mentally many of us from the “water squandering” North America have, to thinking about water usage, a lot. Showers are shorter, the toilette only gets flushed a couple of times a day, the tap is never left to run, no water gets just dumped (i.e. the little bit left in the kettle). Doing dishes is a much more strategic event.

The landlady has a washing machine that I have never seen before. It has two tubs. One is first filled with water from the cistern. The cleanest clothes get washed first. They are then spun dry; the water going into the second tub. The next cleanest clothes get washed in the second tub…back and forth it goes...until the water is too dirty to use.

This water issue really hit home on my last visit. We were having lunch at a really good restaurant on the island

(Lots of good food on Saba!!!! That day I had a wonderful Saban tuna steak on a salad – yummy. I won’t go on about another place that does the best red snapper sandwiches…. Dreaming about good food……)

and I ordered water with the meal. It came bottled. I normally don’t drink bottled water, just because, and I normally don’t have a beverage with my meals. But I was a bit thirsty because I had just spent three hours over a hot torch, in a hot studio, doing glass work. I guess in the back of my head I thought they would just bring a glass like what I am used to here, and after all I just wanted a couple mouthfuls.

Any how, I drank about half of it. I left what was left on the table, thinking, actually not thinking, maybe habit (like we all do at restaurants). I didn’t want it. As we were walking out, the young fellow came running after me, “Don’t forget your water”.

The island is dry right now. They are hoping to get rain over a few days that will add up to some significant number of inches. A gentle rain, not the rain that leads to stuff tumbling off the side of the volcano, or causes the delay of the weekly food shipment because of choppy seas (Fidel’s first month on island, the weather was stormy. Food shipment was delayed three or four weeks – it was desperate).

Sounds ECO friendly, yes? I won’t get into their waste management systems. Wait until they change status from being a protectorate of Holland to an actual “county” of the country. Some socks are going to need pulling up.