Black Water

We took the first left off Hummingbird Highway just past the river as the soldiers at the Police Station had told us. A few blocks into the village we turned right and found ourselves in the courtyard of the St. Margaret’s School. It was late in the day and we were going to try for one more sample. The school buildings were deserted, but we knew St. Margaret’s had a water distribution system, so we walked around the buildings looking for a spigot. A little boy, maybe 6 years old crossed our path, looking at us with curiosity. We asked where we could find some water. He pulled us between two buildings and pointed across the courtyard to a row of pit toilets with a Rotoplas tank mounted on stilts next door. As we started to tell him that wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, I noticed a spigot in the ground next to the tank. Closer examination showed that the tank wasn’t collecting rain water, but probably served as a backup supply for when the distribution system wasn’t distributing. Which must be pretty often to justify the cost of a tank.
We pulled out our test supplies and began sampling the water. Within minutes we were surrounded by about a half dozen beautiful Belizean kids and bombarded with questions: Are you looking for that flyin’ flu – no swine flu? Why are you testing our water? What are you looking for? We ran thru the battery of chemical tests and each time the kids wanted to know what they meant and whether their water was good. They read the TDS meter: it’s 620! No it isn’t. That’s upside down. It’s 029. Yes, and that’s very good. What color is this closest to? Yes, the light blue means hardness is less than 100; your water is very soft. The orange means the pH is around 7; right where it should be. Your water looks very good. Do you drink this water? Oh yes; either this or from the river.
What have we not tested for yet? Ummm…germs? That’s right, but the germ test will take two days for us to learn the answer. Will you come back? No, but we’ll try to let your village know what we learn.

I checked our samples this afternoon. They all looked fine. Except St. Margaret’s, which was as black as coal. Definitely germs in that water. And the kids were drinking it. Could be that the tank is dirty and needs to be cleaned. Or it could be open to airborne contamination. Or given the other measurements, this is probably surface water from the Pine Ridge Mountains and already contaminated in the pipes. We need to know more, but this is definitely a candidate for a water system. And given that it’s in the beautiful Pine Ridge area about a dozen miles south of Jaguar Creek, it would be hard duty to volunteer for this one…
- dan