The Blahger

A very personal blog

Today, we won. Or did we?

The queue for our daily water ration. Photo grabbed from our condo’s fb group
Oh gosh, the water situation in our district is soooo bad I’ve been taking showers at the office for the past 3 days. They started scheduling water supply on Monday, opening the valves 3 times a day for 2 hours at a time. That day we were still able to get by but eventually supply and demand came in to play and water is out in less than 10 mins!
The 2 hours window got replaced with ‘until supply lasts’, and since things got even worse on the following days, they shut off the valves completely and resorted to rationing water from the basement faucet with an allocation of 2 containers per unit per day. We had to line up daily to get household water, and I had to drive twice to my parents’ house this week to fetch drinking water.
The sound of water flowing in these pipes is music to my ears
It’s crazy but it’s not so bad. This afternoon, we got our tanks filled and got faucet water by 3pm. We filled all of our drums, buckets, and water containers, then shut the faucets to allow water to reach the higher floors. 
I’m very grateful for our PMO and Council members for doing everything they can to supply our needs and keep us posted. Our Facebook group is being regularly updated and people are helping each other out. Some are giving out their water ration stubs, some are offering to fill containers while they’re out to fetch water from another city, and people are mindful not to hoard and save only what they need to give chance to others. The spirit of community and kindness is very uplifting. The brimming positivity between neighbors is heartwarming. Our system isn’t perfect, and our mitigation plans are not without flaws, but everyone was understanding of the situation, and aware of the pressure it puts on the management. If they break, so do we.
Today we won because we didn’t give in to the adversity and cooperated with level heads. Because we chose to be kind and thoughtful of others. Because we shared ideas and helped each other out. I’ve never experienced this kind of community. Well, I’ve never experienced water shortage this bad haha.
I’m also very grateful for my parents. I couldn’t have survived this week if not for them who came to our rescue. They lent us pails and drums, and bought water containers for us when it’s getting sold out everywhere. They didn’t mind that I had to come to their house and annoy them at 2 in the morning. I told them I could just come and go to avoid disturbing their sleep, but what kind of daughter am I that I can’t even stay and cuddle with them for a while. Gaaahd, I super duper love my parents!
Another thing I’m super thankful for is our office shower. My goodness, this one’s a big deal because my husband and I can’t share 10 gallons (our daily ration) for shower alone. We’d have nothing to flush our toilets with! While it’s embarrassing and uncomfortable to come to the office with greasy hair, and to be greeted by the guards with “Mam, shower po?” (see, I’m a regular this week), I’m grateful I get to enjoy a warm shower at least! Sets the mood right for getting to work.
Still, this isn’t to say we’re all good. Someone has to take responsibility for this, apologize, and make it right. Whether it’s MWSS, MWC or our godamn government. Everyone’s pointing fingers and no one wants to admit their fault. With our growing dissent for authority it’s no wonder conspiracy theories make more sense than our politicians’ lying mouths. 
This country’s disgusting politics has a way of killing your hopes and sucking your faith dry.
Comfort food. Been on this for 5 days straight.
Good thing there’s Tummy Box’s sisig and Costa Iced Mocha.