BajaNomad

Water in Baja

BajaMama - 3-31-2019 at 10:23 AM

Here is another goofy question: When we fill our 5 gallon water bottles at a water store in Mulege or Santa Rosalia (or any other little town in Baja), is that water purified via reverse osmosis or some other system? I am curious - my father in law and I were discussing the topic and it seemed to me that R/O would be far to expensive of a process to sell water for such an inexpensive price. I have R/O just in my kitchen at my NorCal house, and it rejects A LOT of water to create drinking water, so it is hard for me to fathom that little baja store could afford not only the cost of an R/O system and replacement filters, but also the amount of rejected water.

sancho - 3-31-2019 at 11:05 AM

Been under the assumption the water at the 'purification'
dispensaries was RO, but you have a better handle on the
process than I. I see locals buying from those places, maybe
just filtered, never had any problem with the water, good ?

pacificobob - 3-31-2019 at 11:17 AM

it is RO. works great. 10 pesos a garrafon.




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[Edited on 3-31-2019 by pacificobob]

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Alm - 3-31-2019 at 11:29 AM

I "think" it is RO.

Water doesn't cost them much when it's a running water, though it interesting that in arid BOLA the price is still reasonable 12 pesos.

3-stage filtering through sediment filter, carbon and KDF costs money too, you need to replace filters couple times a month, with commercial volumes.

Cancamo - 3-31-2019 at 12:48 PM

Readily available, water puestos all the time, garafones cost around 200p for the bottle, 10 to 20p to fill. Reverse Osmosis, Ultra Violet, plus other filters, carbon, etc...filtering municipal water.

Some even have the filter system to produce distilled, (batteries etc.) water, around 200p to fill a 5 gallon garafon.

Used to be lots of kidney issues due to the minerals in the well water, (not to mention the tap water), now everybody, (that can afford it), buys garafones at the purificadora.

RnR - 3-31-2019 at 01:20 PM

The water in the water stores is usually RO water.

FYI --- The percentage of waste water vs purified water varies with the operating pressure of the system. Under sink systems use house pressure (30-60 psi) and waste a lot of water due to the low pressure. Increase the pressure to 200 psi and the waste water percentage will decrease dramatically. That being said, it is up to the individual system and the cost of supply water vs the cost of electricity for the booster pumps to determine the breakeven point of the bypass/waste water percentage.

BajaMama - 3-31-2019 at 04:21 PM

Interesting. Thank you. I know our under the counter R/O filter here in the states was a couple hundred, I would have thought a commercial oe would be SUPER expensive. Good to know, the water we get in Mulege and Santa Rosalia is always good. Now, the piped in water at the Punta Chivato house, that is a whole other issue - sometimes I feel dirtier after a shower than before... looks like white swirly things are living in it.

Alm - 3-31-2019 at 06:50 PM

White swirly things grow from something smaller in water tank. They should not appear in shower if the whole-house filtration system is in place and you run the water daily.