When the world was young and I was also younger, water could have been plentiful but it was scarce in the house. My family lived in a village not reached by water systems and we did not own a poso (pump well) until I think I was 9 or 10.
Young as we were, my sisters and I had to fetched water from a neighbor’s flowing well, about 70-100 meters away. No, we never complained, it was just a fact of life for us. We were always happy when our father was home (he worked mostly in Manila) as he would fetch water instead.
We were very happy when a nearer neighbor put up a well. We thought we need not carry pails of water over long stretches of road anymore. But the neighbor (the lady of the house) turned a little haughty every time she saw us coming. We felt bad about it, but again, we thought to be at the receiving end of haughtiness was a part of being poor.
Months later, our father was able to raise enough money to build our own well. Great, now we did not have to fetch water from the neighbors anymore. But we still had to carry water from our own well to the house as father did not have enough money to set up running water system in the house yet.
It was about the same time when we had our own well that father constructed a two-storey house for the family. But it was long before we had running water in the house.
Let’s go back to that time when we had to fetch water from the neighbor, the farther one.
My mother knew the difficulty of carrying water in buckets. I can’t remember her fetching water and the chore fell on the little girls’ frail shoulders. But I can remember how she saved and saved every drop of water that was brought into the house by us.
For instance, whenever she took a bath, she sat on a wash basin so that the water she used would be collected. She used the water to wash clothes, then she used the used water to clean the bathroom (which was called batalan). The water used for washing clothes went into watering the plants. Some plants of course, died because of the chemicals.
Fast forward to 2006: I already have my own house with running water. (I’m still dreaming of the day when hot or cold water would flow from my faucets). But I’m always conscious of saving water and using as little water as possible. I would always tell my house helper to conserve the precious liquid, and my nagging is helpful to an extent. But not enough.
There was a time when my older son (maybe he was five) was already conscious about the scarcity of water. He would say “Save water, the Earth is running out of it.”
But that was a long time ago. He is not so conscious of it now. The two brats (13 and 
would be under the shower for long that I would always reminisce of the time when we carried buckets of water as young girls. I’m planning to buy big basins which I would put under the shower to collect the water. Then maybe use it to water plants. I hope the plants won’t die.
