water gossip

In China, when something of import happens, the only information you get is gossip. If the newspaper does print anything, it's gossip too. When the Virginia Tech shootings happened, the papers here reported that the shooter was from Shanghai. Not exactly reliable reporting. The paper in Wuxi had only a few sentences about the problem, which basically amounted to 'the water is fine, it just smells bad'. The government keeps an eye on the newspapers. We wouldn't want our government superiors knowing what's going on - a la Walkerton.

I had two English corners on the topic yesterday. Some students think it's okay to drink the water. Others think they should boil it first. One student told me the problem is worse because of the dry weather we've been having resulting in Lake Tai being unusually low for this time of year. This is likely true. Other students told me it would last for two or three weeks. Nobody really knows. And no one will hear tell of any incompetence or wrongdoing on the part of the water treatment plant. Not a big surprise.

The water was worse this morning. After smelling the water this morning, I took a quick sponge bath in bottled water and opted not to shower or touch the water at all. So did most of the other teachers and some of the Chinese. Frankly, with my hair, I'd smell putrid for three days. So I'm going to buy a case of water and take a bath Chinese style - with a bucket. Mmmmm... bucket...

We have a student at the school who works for the plant. She said they're flushing the system right now. The water pressure is low today. They're also filling the water with as many chemicals as possible. She said the water should be *better* in a few days. But, until the algal bloom dissipates, there's not a lot that can be done. It's raining now and will rain more tomorrow, which will help. June should be so rainy that mould grows on everything. That'll bring new interesting problems.

SO, the hope is that in the next few days we can use the water for at least bathing and dishes. We've never drunk the water, except accidentally at McDonald's, which explains why it's made me sick so many times. Starbucks has it's own separate water filtration system, so their water is fine, which means that we can drink coffee. This was quite reassuring for me this morning.

More water gossip as it comes available.