BajaNomad - water bill question

water bill question

BajaBlanca - 2-18-2013 at 01:42 PM

can anyone in punta abreojos or vixcaino or bahia asuncion enlighten us ??

we are just getting water piped into our village and we are told the bill will be 150 pesos a month for up to 17 thousand liters.

la pregunta: must one pay this amount even when gone for months at a time ?

shari - 2-18-2013 at 01:46 PM

yeah....this sucks because even though they installed new meters last year...you pay a minimum of 150 pesos even if you dont use a drop of water....silly...and if you have a drip irrigation or wash your car alot, you can easily exceed the minimum limit and pay more. They say you cant pay in advance but a secret conversation with your cashier may allow you to pay in advance...or just get someone to pay your bill every month.

BajaBlanca - 2-18-2013 at 01:59 PM

thank you so much. how absurd that you can't pay in advance....

bajacalifornian - 2-18-2013 at 02:05 PM

water, it is the only glitch in Lopez tambien . . .

MitchMan - 2-18-2013 at 02:59 PM

In La Paz I am paid ahead all the time. It is quite stupid for the water department not to accept advance payments. Any and all accounting/billing systems can handle credits as easilly as debits. There is no difference in the amount of time or complication for them to handle a prepaid balance as it does an outstanding balance due. Makes no sense for their refusing to allow advance payment.

BTW, 17,000 liters is a lot of water for one month; that's about 150 gallons a day. Human consumption for showering, toilet, washing clothes and washing dishes should only be about 30 gallons or less per person per day. Irrigating a fruit tree only takes about 1 or max 2 gallons per day to irrigate.

weebray - 2-18-2013 at 03:10 PM

I agree that is a lot of water for just a little more than ten bucks. We also pay in advance (pagar por adelantado) with no hassle. As for having to pay even if you are not using the service, as my favorite author once said, "life's not fair and it's just not fair that life's not fair.

Mula - 2-18-2013 at 03:30 PM

I pay in advance in Lopez just fine.

I also only pay 38 pesos a month with my INAPAM Senior Discount card.

And I have trucks, plants and mules.

bacquito - 2-18-2013 at 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaBlanca
thank you so much. how absurd that you can't pay in advance....

Yes, I agree. I live in Ensenada and often times pay in advance.

DavidE - 2-18-2013 at 05:36 PM

The water goes off often so they can save on the CFE bill (this is no joke BTW).

The neat part is the water is not being replenished. It is what (?) seventy thousand or so years old from the aquifer? Any idea of how many inches a year the Vizcaino aquifer is losing?

When the aquifer runs out that desert land will be worth about four cents an acre.

DianaT - 2-18-2013 at 05:49 PM

Probably in other places, they do accept advanced payment for water, but the local SAPA office does not like to be paid in advance. However, they have promised to never cut us off when we are gone and they don't. The late fee is just a few pesos.

If we know we are going to be gone for quite a while, well we have struck a deal with them a few times or we leave money with a friend to pay it for us. If the cashier takes money in advance, it means it stays in her desk drawer until the bills are due.

It is a lot more casual out in BA than in many places. However, where we have just moved in the states, the local community water district told us not to worry if we are gone when billed, they won't shut us off and we can pay when we get back. Shoot, the clerk will even come over and pick up the check! Things are rather casual around her also.

Now CFE---that is a different story --- we make sure we are paid well in advance.

[Edited on 2-19-2013 by DianaT]

DENNIS - 2-18-2013 at 06:26 PM

Since they don't turn off water here, as they do with electricity, those that do pay make up for those who don't.
Try to find a brite side of this issue to ruminate on. Think of your shower head with dust coming out of it. That will make us appreciate what we have. :lol:

BajaBlanca - 2-18-2013 at 08:25 PM

I too worry about the aquifer in Vizcaino ... I hope someone somewhere did a study to make sure it can handle all these new users.

El Jefe - 2-18-2013 at 09:32 PM

Hey, you guys all got it made! You got water to your house in a pipe. What a concept! Ours comes in a pipa truck and costs 120 dollars for 4,000 gallons. And we are very happy to get it.

May the east cape pipas run forever!

Bob and Susan - 2-19-2013 at 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MitchMan
BTW, 17,000 liters is a lot of water for one month; that's about 150 gallons a day. Human consumption for showering, toilet, washing clothes and washing dishes should only be about 30 gallons or less per person per day. Irrigating a fruit tree only takes about 1 or max 2 gallons per day to irrigate.

nope...the average person uses 50 gallons a day...i haul my own water and check ALL the time

i do agree... trees take about a gallon a day
i have automatic timers for my trees so not to waste a drop

schwlind - 2-19-2013 at 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by El Jefe
Hey, you guys all got it made! You got water to your house in a pipe. What a concept! Ours comes in a pipa truck and costs 120 dollars for 4,000 gallons. And we are very happy to get it.

May the east cape pipas run forever!

Home in Baja Norte, and pay about the same as you... More expensive than my water bill in FL... (and that bill includes garbage pick up 2 x per week)

[Edited on 2-19-2013 by schwlind]

MitchMan - 2-19-2013 at 09:32 AM

Bob and Susan, wow, how did you come up with 50 gallons a day per person?

I have a Tinaco on the roof that has a 900 liter capacity. We get water pushed to us every other day. I watch that Tinaco like a hawk ever since I had 3 guests plus myself for a total of four people and we ran out of water because the water being pushed to the house last summer didn't have enough pressure and duration to fill the tinaco completely. I did a bunch of calculations: measured the water usage per toilet flush, per minute of shower flow, estimated water usage for hand washing dishes, and measured irrigation of plants in the yard.

I replaced the old shower head with a low flow, replaced the old 3.5 gal/flush toilet with a 1.28 gal/flush toilet. I have my clothes laundered by an outside laundry service. Came out with 21 gallons per person per day: 7 toilet flushes=9 gals, hand wash dishes=3 gals, 5 minute shower=8 gal. That's a total of 20 gallons per day. If you wash your own clothes with a top loading washer that uses 40 gallons per wash (side loaders use only 25 gallons per wash), then I estimated you might wash one load every 4th day for an average daily usage of 10 gallons. All that equals 30 gallons per day total per person.

It is given that I do focus on water conservation...modestly, I think. I could have gotten an even more water economical dual flushing toilet, I am looking for a low flow shower head that has a shut off button so that I could take a "GI Shower" if needed, and, actually, I average one load of wash every 7 days, not every 4 days as calculated above.

The only way I could get to 50 gallons per day is if I were to go back to my old 3.5 gallon toilet and the old shower head and wash my own clothes with a not-so-water-economical top loading washer and wash a load every 4 days.

rts551 - 2-19-2013 at 09:39 AM

B ack to the original question. Sorry Blanca...I will still have to travel the mile into town to get water....and eve n though I have asked the are not sure how much that will be. today it costs me 30 pesos per 1000 litres. which is 510 pesos per 17000...what a deal to live in town!

DENNIS - 2-19-2013 at 09:45 AM

Quote:

OUCH.........it's a bit less here, thank the aqua gawds........400 Ps for
3000 gallons. That's larger than the normal Pipa size by 500 gallons.

DENNIS - 2-19-2013 at 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by schwlind

Home in Baja Norte, and pay about the same as you... More expensive than my water bill in FL... (and that bill includes garbage pick up 2 x per week)

WOW....paying that much in SADM?? Is that delivered or city water?

durrelllrobert - 2-19-2013 at 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by weebray
I agree that is a lot of water for just a little more than ten bucks. We also pay in advance (pagar por adelantado) with no hassle. As for having to pay even if you are not using the service, as my favorite author once said, "life's not fair and it's just not fair that life's not fair.

In the states I had to pay a monthly sewer availability fee based on my water consumption. No mater how much I complained that I was on my septic system and not connected I still had to pay because it was available.

msteve1014 - 2-19-2013 at 05:42 PM

It's a deal if you use all that water. I'm never here, so my cost is going up, but I think I can handle it. :yes:

Maybe I can sell water to people "off line". I'm sure my neighbors will work it out while I'm gone.

Quote:

Originally posted by rts551
B ack to the original question. Sorry Blanca...I will still have to travel the mile into town to get water....and eve n though I have asked the are not sure how much that will be. today it costs me 30 pesos per 1000 litres. which is 510 pesos per 17000...what a deal to live in town!

Pescador - 2-20-2013 at 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MitchMan
In La Paz I am paid ahead all the time. It is quite stupid for the water department not to accept advance payments. Any and all accounting/billing systems can handle credits as easilly as debits. There is no difference in the amount of time or complication for them to handle a prepaid balance as it does an outstanding balance due. Makes no sense for their refusing to allow advance payment.

BTW, 17,000 liters is a lot of water for one month; that's about 150 gallons a day. Human consumption for showering, toilet, washing clothes and washing dishes should only be about 30 gallons or less per person per day. Irrigating a fruit tree only takes about 1 or max 2 gallons per day to irrigate.

That is because you are only looking at the situation as an accountant with little understanding of what is really going on. In all of the smaller villages and pueblos, the position with SAPA is normally a political assignment and they receive a percentage of the bill. We used to be able to pay ahead but they put a stop to that because the new person coming in to the position never got paid for the pre-payments.

In our village, there is a person who has taken it upon himself to accept the pre-pays, then he banks the money, pays the bills each month, and makes a little on interest. He even went so far as to have an actual contract drawn up. That worked fine until the new SAPA representative got a filing against him because of supposed lost income.

They also put meters in our small village but decided it was too much trouble to read them so we went back to flat rate.

Blanca started the thread talking about what happens in La Bocana which is about light years away from what happens in La Paz.

MitchMan - 2-20-2013 at 10:41 AM

Pescador, if what you say is the case (re: political assignments and % compensation), that explains the issue. The point still remains, though, that there is no accounting/internal control basis for not taking prepayments; that's good to know. And, apparently, just some insider's compensation arrangement in small towns is the reason. Good to know that, too.