Drought alert

The day has arrived. There is no longer any water in our underground storage tank. For months now the source has been dry, and little by little the level of our water supply has been dropping. But all is well, as readers of my earlier blogs will know, for now we can pump water from our forage(or bore hole) instead. But the water from our source is sweet, and when it flows again into our tank we do not wish it to be mixed with hard forage water. And so B. has devised an alternative system. Every day he switches on the forage pump and fills a one cubic metre storge tank which he has placed high up at the top of our property. When a tap is opened in the house water is drawn down. Thanks to gravity, there is no further need to switch on a pump. So if the tank should run dry, there is no risk that any pump motor will burn out.

For now our pump house is redundant.

Drought restrictions.

Throughout France most départments have been subject to water restrictions for some time. Here in Hérault our restrictions are at the strictest possible level. Even though we shall now be drawing water from our own forage, this obviously taps into the water table, and we are subject to the same precautions. We must not waste it, and watering the garden must be restricted to the cooler hours when it will not needlessly evaporate.

But what will we drink?

Now that our sweet spring water is no longer available we are reluctant to use the harder water from the forage to drink. We decided to take some water storage containers to the tap outside the local church to fill up with 'eau potable,' the local village treated water. But the tap would only emit a dribble. As we were attempting to fill up, Lola, the wife of the local olive grower stopped by. "You'll fill up much quicker if you go to the fontaine at Gourgas she advised. The water there gushes out endlessly with some force , and so we soon had a plentiful supply.

"But," we had said to Lola, "surely the water at Gourgas is not potable. " For there is a notice there to say that the water is 'non controlée.' "Pah," she had said as she waved us away. For everybody knows that the water from the Gourgas fountain is pure, whether it is tested or not. And what's more, it's cool and delicious. We shall be going regularly to collect it until the day our source returns.

Should any person reading my blog be in need of a spouse my advice , without a doubt, would be ... "Marry an engineer." You never know when it might come in handy.

P.S.