You cannot drink water out of the tap here as is true in many parts of Mexico. So you have to buy purified water to drink, brush your teeth, wash vegetables, etc. It costs around $1.30 for 5 gallons. There is a lot of disagreement about how far to take this. For example, I was brushing my teeth with tap water. Then I got diarrhea. Now I brush my teeth with purified water, and rinse vegetables with it, too, after washing them with tap water. I have no way of knowing what caused the problem. I have read that it takes around six months to become acclimatized to the local common bacteria. This would be true for a Mexican going to the US.
Another interesting plumbing issue, indirectly related to the first, is that you cannot flush toilet paper down the drain. The sewage systems are very old and cannot handle the paper. We have a little plastic trash can next to the toilet where toilet paper must go. The man who handles maintenance in this apartment complex, Manuel, comes in every day to take this and other trash out of the apartment. How are they related? Imagine being up all night with diarrhea and going through a lot of toilet paper.
Not a pretty image you paint. Seriously have you thought of trying the gizmo that Steve got for hiking, it's called an epi-pen, I think ? It treats water for 99.9% of microbes in about a minute. Ask him about it.
ReplyDeleteThen try an experiment, brush your teeth with epi-penned water, and let us know what happens the second time. :)