Tragedy of the Commons

Dengue-free!

Today was an all around memorable day. I love my house, and the neighborhood is great. I have a tinaco, which is a big black drum that sits on your roof and stores water for when the pipes are dry. It turns out that you can go through 250 gallons of water in two days when all the muchachos in the neighborhood are filling up 5 gallon buckets at the outside spigot when you're gone or not looking. It also turns out that the tinaco will not refill with water if a neighbor cuts your water pipe.

So, I went to Sugeidy's mom, Margo, who is my new in-country mother. She brings me coffee in the morning, rice at lunchtime, and tried to explain to me how to stir spaghetti with a fork when it is cooking. "Like this!" She also had her son build me a little table to put my stove on, and sent a muchacho to fill up my gas tank. Within 10 minutes, she had yelled at the neighbor who had cut the pipe, scolded a few muchachos who stole water, and was finding me a bucket of water to bathe with. She kept assuring me that the tinaco would refill with water soon, but nothing was happening. We went to the neighborhood well, next to a colmado (quickie mart) on the entry street, and filled up the bucket with water. The colmado owner showed me how this switch in the dirt a bit off the sidewalk turns on the water for half the barrio at a time. When we left, Sugeidy made sure the switch was on our side. Still no water in the tinaco. The neighbor who had cut the pipe supposedly repaired it, but who knows.

When I moved into this house, I thought it was a magical place. I took showers, washed dishes, and flushed the toilet. In 5 months, my hands had never been so clean. At first, the tinaco was overflowing with water because there is no off valve--it just keeps filling whenever there is water. It bothered me when I had to shoo away a muchacho who was filling his bucket at the spigot, but I thought, "hey, it's overflowing with water, it's ok." Then it was empty, and my bright sunny land of unicorns and care bears vanished.

They don't see it as stealing water. I have water, they need water, so they take my water. It all comes from a community well, and no one pays. It is like the Tragedy of the Commons playing out on my roof. One bucket here or there doesn't make a difference if the system is working properly, but rampant tinaco abuse and no refilling equals everyone, especially me, is screwed. That's what happened to Haiti's trees, and Dominicans pride themselves on the fact that they care about the environment. Then, they toss bags of trash in the street, litter at every opportunity, and don't devise a cutoff valve for overflowing tinacos. Everything is incredibly polluted, and the water is undrinkable, and while they recognize there is a problem, it is difficult to change when "it has always been that way." But, jesus, I don't think I can just wash my hands of the unnecessary pollution and litter. Right now, I can't even wash my hands.