News for San Antonio Tlayacapan: water problems

It has been reported that a pump failed and a good portion of SAT is without water or very low pressure. We have not had water for a day or so. It could be a while before the pump is fixed. Suggest you look at your underground and roof tanks and conserve water if you are not getting water. This info is from a contractor working in our neighborhood who went to the water company and talked to them. List is getting long for water trucks. Signups at water company.



Best not to wait til your are totally out of water. Also I am not sure of how widespread situation is. Please post if you know more than me.

Did they say when they expect it to be fixed?

Hate to jinx myself, but I have normal water availability for this time of year in the below Sunrise area of SAT.
Thanks for report.

CanuckBob wrote:Did they say when they expect it to be fixed?

Well I am reluctant to tell you what he told me. The contractor said multiple days lots of them. We usually have water problems this time of the year. I have two water systems one hooked directly up to the pipes in the street and another normal house system with an underground tank. We have not had high pressure water from the street for a week or so and this morning the nightly water stopped completely that fed the underground tank which is abnormal. Things have been bad enough but now its worse. This is beyond the normal situation.

Please don't shoot the messenger. Luckily we can flush toilets with pond water if we have to. Now is the time for you folks to figure out if you lost the water lottery in SAT.

Well with out water to be able to take a shower, at least you will not have to worry about social distancing

Now heard a big well went dry. That is worse. Pumps can be fixed. Can wells?

A few years ago we lost a pump and most of the village had no water for a couple/3 weeks. Called the pipa guy, he filled my tinaco (no aljibe), and about a week later the talk was a new pump had arrived and they were getting ready to install it. Every time I walked over there were either 3 men kneeling around the mechanism staring at it and talking or there was no one there at all. About a week later word was they put the pump in and we would have water tomorrow. Tomorrow came and . . . no water! Next day, no water! After a couple days Fernando came over laughing to tell me there was an explosion and THE PUMP BLEW UP! Two weeks later, we had water.

If I were you, I would call the pipa truck and smoke a fat one. This could be awhile.

Sure you can fix a well. Just make sure you use metric screws because your water meter measures litres.

Trailrunner wrote:A few years ago we lost a pump and most of the village had no water for a couple/3 weeks. Called the pipa guy, he filled my tinaco (no aljibe), and about a week later the talk was a new pump had arrived and they were getting ready to install it. Every time I walked over there were either 3 men kneeling around the mechanism staring at it and talking or there was no one there at all. About a week later word was they put the pump in and we would have water tomorrow. Tomorrow came and . . . no water! Next day, no water! After a couple days Fernando came over laughing to tell me there was an explosion and THE PUMP BLEW UP! Two weeks later, we had water.

If I were you, I would call the pipa truck and smoke a fat one. This could be awhile.

Time to start boiling the pool water.........

CanuckBob wrote:

Trailrunner wrote:A few years ago we lost a pump and most of the village had no water for a couple/3 weeks. Called the pipa guy, he filled my tinaco (no aljibe), and about a week later the talk was a new pump had arrived and they were getting ready to install it. Every time I walked over there were either 3 men kneeling around the mechanism staring at it and talking or there was no one there at all. About a week later word was they put the pump in and we would have water tomorrow. Tomorrow came and . . . no water! Next day, no water! After a couple days Fernando came over laughing to tell me there was an explosion and THE PUMP BLEW UP! Two weeks later, we had water.

If I were you, I would call the pipa truck and smoke a fat one. This could be awhile.

Time to start boiling the pool water.........

Don't have a pool but I do have a fish pond!!

Fish & Ships, yum

Major water problems in El Dorado SAT. Been paying for the water trucks about the last 3 weeks no end in sight.

Out of curiosity, what is the cost of a 10,000 liter water truck ? a year ago it was 500 pesos and the water was very silty (if that is the correct word).

The water trucks fron Ocotalan are 100% potable water, government tested. Maybe they are allowed some silt as dietary fiber, but I doubt it. Comes from purified Lake Chapala water.

HoneyBee wrote:Out of curiosity, what is the cost of a 10,000 liter water truck ? a year ago it was 500 pesos and the water was very silty (if that is the correct word).

I paid 800 peso for a private 10,000L truck of water.  A good portion of SAT is waterless and the water company only has two water trucks so I decided to pay rather than wait for the free water which may not come.  Wasn't so bad as we filled three tanks with one load. Sometimes the free water only shows up with a partial load and does not come back to finish filling the tank so you have to go back onto the list again.  I can't get upset as how can two trucks deal with all the shortages lakeside.

Octavio  765 2725 10,000 litre truck.  Came when he said he would within 1/2 hour of time. Very clean well water. No smell or sand.

Thanks for the information. I will keep the phone number just in case.

Me too. Pressure is low now.

Zed, what "tanks" are you referring to? Tinaco or aljibe?

Perhaps the Chapala President should also be paying attention to the SAT water problems , besides handing out free bags of food
Again water distribution and availability at Lakeside is Major Major problem ...just how many new homes and business can you get from a 1 inch hose pipe

Isn’t El Dorado where they are building the fancy new hotel? I have friends that were thinking of investing there before all this virus stuff started. They certainly were not aware of water shortages in the area. I suppose that is something that doesn’t need to be disclosed by the seller or builder? I rented in San Antonio one summer, at the time there was no water issues, I hope they can get it fixed quickly, it’s an ideal location to get around without a car.

Better dirty people then hungry people.....

Yea my underground tank was full this morning and the street pressure taps are running. Slow but running!

Trailrunner my underground tank gets water from street and the pressure has been extremely low for weeks but it was still enough to fill my tank most nights. My roof tanks are 2/3 floors up so a pump runs to push water from underground tank to roof. Roof tank is high enough to give 10lbs pressure just from gravity when electricity is off and no pump to house.

Zed, your underground tank is called an aljibe and those big plastic tanks on the roof are called tinacos. What you describe sounds like a normal system and pretty good for a pueblo-wide pozo failure. At least you have water. My house is low pressure also but I can still shower. I saw a pipa truck filling an aljibe for a house just below Panino Saturday. I imagine the whole village is in the same boat as us.

It will get fixed. It will take some time.

CherryCola, there are water issues worldwide and if you read this thread you know that there has been a temporary breach in our water delivery system. There will probably be thousands of things about living in Mexico that your friends are not yet aware of. No, they won't be disclosed by a realtor. Welcome to Mexico, it's part of the adventure.

Will the driver of the pipa allow sharing between properties/neighbors? One time in Mazatlan the driver refused to share my load with my neighbors who were completely out of water...so I invited them to bring their buckets and I instructed the driver to unload the balance of the tank onto the ground. I had caught him going down to the next neighborhood and "making business" with the unused balance on another time ....he was getting almost double $$$. Never used him again!

I shopped around for water to fill my pool-it had to be very clean. I found pipas from the place on the carretera just east of Jocotepec good quality.

WillieRae wrote:Will the driver of the pipa  allow sharing between properties/neighbors?  One time in Mazatlan the driver refused to share my load with my neighbors who were completely out of water...so I invited them to bring their buckets and I instructed the driver to unload the balance of the tank onto the ground.  I had caught him going down to the next neighborhood and "making business" with the unused balance on another time ....he was getting almost double $$$.  Never used him again!

We filled three tanks right next to each other so he just had to move hose. Octavio was super and his boy kid was very cute. Water was very clean. See my previous post for his phone number.