Water and Life

When we moved to our new place in a sub-village of Baguio City three years ago, we had no access to any piped water. But all our neighbors had their water tapped from a nearby spring and creek and conveyed to their houses through PVC pipes. They told us not to worry and that we could also look for some spring to access about 300 to 500 meters away from where we live.

Tired of fetching water from a neighbor, I ushered in my three brothers from the neighboring town of La Trinidad to help me explore a spring to which we could connect our own PVC pipe. My three brothers and I distributed ourselves over a Y-shaped creek above our sub-village. And presto, just before noon one Saturday more than three years ago, one of my brothers discovered a small spring, which other neighbors had ignored.

As we dug a well around the spring, we found a couple of vigilant mountain crabs, which – with their claws ready -- declared to us that they were the original and rightful inhabitants of that small water system. The presence of the dominantly orange-red creatures also made us understand that the spring was a living one, part of an oasis of life.

With stones, we built a terrace around the small well, which now catches the spring oozing from the grass- and reed-covered hill where an alnus tree and an endemic water-bearing tree proudly stand. From the well, we laid out a five-meter half-inch-diameter PVC pipe connected to a more than a cubic-meter rubberized plastic drum. Just a few inches lower in elevation than the water level of the well around the spring, this drum now serves as our main tank from which a 250-meter half-inch-diameter PVC pipe conveys water right into our yard.

That spring had provided our water needs for the last more than three years. On dry months starting February to May, however, the spring would shrink. So I’ve to readjust the flow of water from the well to the plastic drum tank. Through trial and error, I discovered that the rate of water flow to the tank must be equivalent with the rate of water coming out from the foothill spring.

How do I adjust the rate of water flow? During the rainy season, I can lower the end of the pipe connected to the tank. But during summer I’ve to elevate the other end of the pipe so even if the water flowing is as small as a rat’s tail, we are still assured that water continues to flow into the tank.

But something happened just this February. A neighbor dug a well just two feet away from my own well. Since the new well my neighbor dug was lower, the water supplying my well decreased. I could have complained but I just shrugged my shoulders, fully understanding that my neighbor was also in dire need of water. In other communities, this could have led to a fist fight or even a tribal war.

In our sub-village, we feel blessed for having free water. But as our neighborhood is growing, it would not be advisable for every new neighbor to dig his own well. The wisest thing is to have one big reservoir and equally distribute the water to all households. But this needs more logistics and members of the neighborhood have to be organized. This can be a prospective community project in coordination with the Barangay (village) captain and with some government or donor agency.

In the meantime my family and I still try to conserve water as much as possible. We close our faucet when our drum is full. It is better that what overflows is the tank that catches water from the spring because what overflows also goes to the creek where farmers have tapped their irrigation source. The water used to wash dishes can be used to water the plants and the water used for laundry can be used to flush the toilet.

While others welcome summer, I dread it because this is a time of uncertainty for our water source. But thanks to a recent cold front, it has rained recently for three days, including during the World Day of Water on March 22; thus reinforcing our spring, our source of living water, and one of our intimate links to our dear Mother Earth.