Water Project

the water is currently not on in our building; don't be alarmed, its on purpose per the management. they have started rationing our water supply in preparation for the dry months ahead. we now have running water at 6am, 12:30pm, and 8pm. the water will come on for about 30-40 min, if we're lucky. when the water comes on, we jump up from whatever we are doing and do the dishes or take a hot shower or try and do some laundry. the water does not always last the length of the 40 min wash cycle so when that happens i usually have to manually fill the washing machine and change the settings so it will at least spin the clothes the rest of the cycle. we have buckets of water lying around the house for use when the water is not running. and if we happen to be out of the house that day we just have to hope the buckets we have will last us another day. its not too bad now that we have formed a somewhat of a schedule. it's weird to have a schedule based around the water supply. last night we went out for dinner and i thought before we left, "dang it, we wont be home when the water's on- we'll miss it again today... maybe we shouldn't go out..." i don't know if my priorities are messed up for wanting to stay home for water or not staying home for the water.... its not a dire need, we have buckets to store it in... its just inconvenient. i woke up this morning at 6 so i could wash our dishes, fill up the buckets of water that were all running low and fill our drinking containers... only water would make me wake up that early.
it got me thinking about water here. during the rainy season; water is in abundance but its not sanitary to drink; which is why we have clean water projects to bring people clean water and inform them they are getting sick so much because they are using dirty water. but in the dry months, especially towards the end of those dry months, people literally have to deal with not having water available. period. they use water for everything here, from cooking rice to drinking tea to washing clothes. how do they cope with that? i get annoyed with having to wake up at 6 to fill the washing machine with water but they cant even drink water. how can we help them in that? build better systems to conserve and save water during the rainy season so it doesn't dry up during the drought that comes every year.