Hound Dog
May 19, 2009, 11:09 AM
Post #2 of 5
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Re: [Yaxchibonam] Water problems in Oaxaca & mercury contamination in Ocotlan
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OK, Yaxchibonam:
I am not a resident of Oaxaca City but San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas but I do spend a bit of time in and around Oaxaca City. A couple of thoughts if I may:
Ocotlan de Morelos is not that close to Oaxaca de Juarez and even if it were, they constitute two very different municipal water districts. While I have been to Ocotlan I know nothing about its municipal services but I do know something about water delivery problems in Oaxaca City.
There are some serious and ongoing problems with the municipal water supply in Oaxaca City. I would be quite concerned about those problems if I were buying a home there. If you are renting, at least your problems may be transitory. Look around among folks you may meet in Oaxaca City to establish what your water supply problems may be before you make any serious commitments. Only buy there if you speak passable Spanish and even then be cautious.
Our experience in San Cristóbal demonstrates the complications you may be facing down the road in Oaxaca City. We had no knowledge of municipal water problems or the lack thereof when we bought a home in the historic center of San Cristóbal and only became acquainted with those problems upon living in that home over a couple of years and that is the way of life in Mexico - especially Southern Mexico.
Let´s talk about specifics. At our home in Ajijic on the shores of Lake Chapala, water is delivered by the city 24 hours a day. Therefore, we use water directly from the municipal water wells to water our garden and water delivered to our cistern for our own personal use. When we bought the Chiapas house, we installed garden water lines directly fed by the municipality for watering our garden and another line to fill our underground cistern (aljibe) for our use. Now, get this. Nobody but nobody informed us at the time we came up with this configuration that it made no sense since the municipality of San Cristóbal only feeds water to residences in the early morning hours between 1:00AM and 4:00AM therefore we could not water our garden during the day from pipes directly fed from the city.
Do you get my drift here? No one told us this. They simply followed our instructions and there you have it. Useless piping from the street unless I want to presume I know when that nocturnal water supply comes on and get up in the middle of the night to water my garden.
Now, we have had other serious problems with the municipal water supply in San Cristóbal but let´s not go there.
I can tell you that the city of Oaxaca supplies its hotels and other commercial establishments while denying water to resdential customers and the city is infamous for that. Beware and act accordingly.
As for conatamination of water supplies with various minrals and chemicals. Buy and drink only commercially available "purified" water and never drink water from the tap - EVER! Buy water from commercial purified water vendors and even then keep you fingers crossed. Purified water sold to residents in San Cristóbal by the Coca Cola company ,of all people, made many people sick in Chiapas. Trust only God and even then carry an umbrella when you venture out into a thunderstorm.
(This post was edited by Hound Dog on May 19, 2009, 11:23 AM)
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