Home & Garden Best Posts in Thread: Water Shortage Valencia

I live in Jawa Valencia and we have had water outages every sense we retired here, (10+ years). We started out with those 5 gal. water jugs, that was ok as long as the water outage was not any longer than a day. Then there was the big flood and the water outage was several weeks long. I bought a 200 gal stainless tank and plumed it into the system. Worked fine until the next year when we got the second and bigger flood.
At this point I was sure that Valencia Water Department was not a reliable water source. Started looking for a driller and soon realized that a well was way to expensive for my bank account. Went and got another tank, 500 gal. this time and a pump with a pressure tank to push the water to the house.
Now here is my water system: I can operate straight from the city to the house or the city to either of the two tanks and then to the house. The 500 has to have the pump and elect, we have a 5 kw. stand by gen-set. We can gravity feed the house from the 200 tank.
Here is how it is suppose to work: From the meter through a tee one going to the out side faucets unfiltered. The other to the rest of the system. Going to the house side it goes through a 5 micron filter. A utility sink in the shop, then feeds both tanks. From either of the tanks through a 1 micron filter to the house. We also catch the water off the roof and then pumped into the 500 through a 1 micron.
Now if we use all the storage and get down to the last 200 gallons. I load the four 55 gallons down spout drums with the 4 large plastic trash cans in the truck. Drive up the mountain to a clean looking stream pump them full. Back at the house I pump them into the system through a 1 micron filter into the 500 gal. tank. Three trips will fill the system. Good for about 6 to 10 days depending on how good we are at conserving the water.
I no longer worry about Valencia's water delivery of non potable water. We buy all our potable water no matter what we have in storage.

 

The backflow preventor in the illustration is installed at the fawcett as is used to prevent backflow from the dirty outdoor reservoir back into the house. Here many houses are fed from a reservoir.
The illustration does servers to explain my point. Dirt can ingress due to leaks in the pipe.
Look at the drawing and imagine a hole in the pipe near the top and another hole close to the bottom.
Air, dirt and debris will leak in the top hole and water will flow back to the reservoir. Water will also leak out the bottom hole. Dirt, debris and air will leak in the top hole to replace the water that flowed out the bottom.
That's my theory on how dirt gets into the water mains.

After a rain storm there are huge puddles along the highway in Bacong and no drainage holes. My suspicion is someone was absent from school the day the "water flows downhill" lesson was taught.

I'm pretty sure a backflow preventor and a check valve operate on the same principal. They do the same thing.

 

We live in Lunga, Valencia. About ten days ago our water simply stopped flowing. The stoppage lasted a couple of days. We assumed it was just another, occasional, breakage of a line someplace up stream. I ran into a barangay official and asked what the problem was. He said, the water source had run dry and might remain so until the rains resumed. But, surprise, surprise, the next day the water began to flow again and has continued to do so. No problems with odor or discoloration.

 

My mistake and I apologise.

 

I don't believe for one minute it has anything to do with leakages, they just turn it off !

 

After a heavy down pour The water is so filthy its impossible to see through it. Buying potable water is the only solution.