When it rains

When it rains

Now although nine months of the year are dry here in Arequipa, it does rain a bit in the first three months of the year. It does not rain very much. Typical rainfall is three or four inches in total during those three months.

The pattern is much the same each day, normally a blue sky and sunny morning which becomes increasingly overcast as the morning advances. Then in the afternoon the rain comes around three or so in the afternoon.

One would think that the city would be ready for the rain as it comes each year. However it is not. The roads are not cambered to take into account the flow of water and furthermore there are no drains. Roads become rivers and passing cars give people free cold dirty showers. Worse is many sewers overflow so the river is also contaminated. When it stops raining the sewage keeps flowing. By my house it flowed for a week. This destroys the roads. They are poorly built to start with lacking any proper foundation. Thus the rain just rips them up. In the morning teams go out to repair the worst potholes only for the rain to rip the work up in the afternoon.

The sewerage is a problem as passing cars shower people with it. It smells horrible and worst it carries diseases. Getting splashed is not the only problem as the passing cars throw up an aerosol which is not very healthy either.

Other problems are that the water company has not built anything to

cope with the mud in the river when it rains. Thus when it rains the water company just turns off the water to 80% of the city until the river goes down again. A city with 1 million people without water each time it rains heavily, can you imagine that in England or the USA. We are told to store water for several days as the water maybe off for several days at a time!! I do not know what the water company thinks is service to its customers. That is the problem they do not. They think they are doing us a favour by supplying us with water and we must take what they give us.

Electricity suffers too with power cuts when it rains. That is because very little is done to protect the transformers from rain. Well it was not raining when they installed them!!!!!

Water off roofs of houses are just led out on a pipe and them left to pour down onto the street below. Nobody thinks of piping the water down to ground level. Thus when one walks in the rain, one not only has to dodge the spray from passing traffic but also the water spouts from roofs.

It does make for a different life style. It also leads one to remember we depend on God each day. We look to Him not to get ill walking in the street. We can be patient without water and power. It also reminds us about the power of the gospel to change people’s lives. It is the impact of the gospel that leads water companies to think about their service of their customers. Sadly in many advanced countries as God is denied and ignored so such customer service will decline.