A Peace of China: tap water, river water

RIP

My beloved water purifier stopped working last week; it just wouldn’t turn on. I was tempted to unscrew the bottom and peek into the mechanical parts, but a stern warning on the bottom stopped me. I think this impulse to take non-working things apart is very DYI American. Instead, I emailed PC.

Starting the water purifier is part of my daily morning routine. It makes absolutely pure water, one drip at a time, taking four hours to produce 1 gallon. When pouring from the jug, I’m hyper careful not to spill a drop and if I do, it’s a minor crisis, “Damn, there goes my water!” I will never again view drinking water in quite the same way. Do we really sprinkle potable water on our lawns in the US?

I use about a gallon of drinking water each day, so by the afternoon, I was getting low. In our fabulous PC medical kits, between the condoms and anti-fungal cream, is a small jar of water purification tablets. I eyed them for a second, and then decided to put them into my newly created earthquake evacuation bag.

I go to boil tap water. I know one PCV who doesn’t use her purifier and just boils all of her drinking water, but she doesn’t live in Chongqing. Boiled water is available all over China, like on trains, in bus and train stations, on every floor of my campus teaching building. (As I’m writing this, it occurs to me that I could also just hike my jug to a teaching building for water.)

After I let the water cool, I made the mistake of looking at the water. It separated into layers: a film on top, suspended particles, and sediment on the bottom! I can’t believe it, so I do this experiment 3 times with the same results.

I want PC to helicopter over a new purifier from Chengdu; they email back that they can get one to me in about a month, saying my program manager will be coming to Chongqing, “Can you wait for it till she takes it for you or mail you now? We just worried the damage during the process of mailing.” Understandable. PC staff is concerned and responsive to PCV needs, but they have their limits.

Then, I get on the phone to get a jug of water delivered. Speaking Chinese face to face is challenging enough for me, but on the phone, my elementary language skills can create all sorts of problems with both sides repeating when and where several times. This call goes smoothly, and I’m saved with a jug about an hour later.

walk along the Jialing, from Ciqikou to Shapingba

Water is still on my mind a few days later when I found myself walking along the Jialing River after a huge thunderstorm the night before. All of the side creeks were running, dumping who knows what into this 740-mile long river, now brown with silt and I can only imagine what else. In March, 16,000 dead pigs were dumped into the Huangpu River which supplies water to Shanghai, but the local officials reassured everyone that the water is fine.

I don’t see any dead things in the Jialing. I pass people at the river’s edge fishing, flying kites, washing clothes, all things I’ve seen before. But, then I see something moving in the river. People are swimming! I look at barges chugging up river, I think about my tap water, and I wonder how safe and sane swimming in the Jialing is.