Water

Water
Apart from minor inconveniences like laundry a bigger issue for us is drinking water for the boat. Bottled water is a big no no for reasons that hopefully will come clear - and this can be bought anywhere - but more worrying tap water is much more scarce. We have never had an issue before this year and perhaps it is because we previously sailed bigger islands but today’s tale is a cautionary one.
We have not filled up with water since Marmaris - more than 10 days ago. We carry 150 litres with a 25 litre emergency portable water carrier. Bear in mind that in the USA the average water usage per individual per day on mains supply is SEVENTY GALLONS - this is 265 litres!!! We have used our emergency water now but still cannot find potable water. We tried to get some delivered here on Sikonos before we left for Ios but could not get hold of the waterman. We were not too concerned then as we thought we would have no problems getting water on a well developed tourist island. But having failed to get water on Ios for reasons discussed below, we are back here on Sikinos and yesterday were told that the island has run out of water!
We did not really gell with Ios but were glad we went there as we made some friends - in particular Peter, the recent previous owner and designer of 30m SY Spirit of the East who, with paid crew, were delivering her to Marmaris for a refit. When Peter heard who Andy was he invited us on board and asked Andy to quote for some work! So that bit was good.
Ios is known as the backpackers island though they are trying to become more up market - for instance, after we swam in the morning we asked a man washing his sunbeds if we could borrow the hose to shower ourselves (in an attempt to save boat water) and he refused saying he was not allowed to - we realised on discussing why he was not allowed that this was an attempt at stopping people sleeping on the beach by withdrawing facilities. However, the whole place has a sort of Disney feel - they are trying to be something they are not. We had the MOST AWFUL meal here, choosen purely on cost (big mistake) - in fact so bad we picked at it and left hungry so had a second meal later which actually was fab! Another problem Ios has is rubbish and every night they burn it above the main port hoping, I suppose, that the wind blows the smoke and ash out to sea. Unfortunately it doesn’t always and all the yachts get covered in black ash every morning. The place is otherwise spotlessly clean - very little litter - but what is an island to do with all the waste the tourist industry generates (especially plastic water bottles by the tonne). But that is another story.
Anyway back to the water. Our pilot says that the water van brings good drinking water to boats in Ios port so we found the phone number for the waterman and called him. His English was basic and our Greek is non-existent so when we asked him if it was sweet water? Drinkable? And he answered yes we were pleased. However we had been overheard by an Athenian on a charter yacht close by and he told us the water was not good to drink “washing water only” at the moment. I went into my usual “everyone says that and we always drink it” spiel but he said “no, it is yellow - I won’t even cook in it”. So we had to turn the waterman down.
I started to think about the problems of a small island supporting a disproportionate population (for instance, Santorini has a population of 11,000 in the winter but 300,000 summer population). Tourists use a lot of water. In one day we swim and then shower, swim again and shower again, get hot on the beach so shower and wash our hair for the evening, wash out a few clothes perhaps, flush the toilet rather often etc. All without thinking (1) where does the water come from and (2) where does it go after the plughole? Obviously on a boat you become much more connected to all this and use water very differently but the average tourist is unaware. Before the tourist industry came to dominate the islands economy the small population of islanders used ground water, tended their crops on the terraces that now lie abandoned but still cover the island and lived in tune with the elements. But the ground water is no longer being used - either it has dried up or it is polluted. Were the abandoned terraces due to better jobs in the tourist industry or simply a lack of water for their crops?
The tourist trade is predominantly run by people who come to the islands for the season and then go back to the mainland for the winter. Georgio, who we met in his café in the Hora of Sikinos, and our pony-tailed shopkeeper from last week are both from Athens and when questioned closely do not seem to have much of a “feel” for the island on which they spend most of their time. Our young friend Greek / English Alex on Folegandhros was a bit more in tune but even he, it turns out, is wrong about the water on that island. He told us that the island water was good and it was what he always drank. But now we doubt that that is what he drinks these days.
Remember our horrid anchorage in Folegandhros? And how a big tanker like ship had arrived in the night and managed to negotiate Deep Blue and another anchored yacht to get to the quay. Well we met the captain last night as the same ship arrived at Sikinos and he recognised us. And his ship turned out to be the long awaited water boat, topping up the islands water tanks. So things started to become clear - we now realise that the yellow Ios water must come from the bottom of the holding tank due to the low level of water left on the island. The holding tank on Folegandhros was being topped up that night - so they no longer drink the ground water and on Sikonos they were waiting for the water tanker and did not want to give their precious last drops to a visiting boat. The guys in the mini-market here remembered me from our last stay and had told me that we could not have water because (1) it has not rained since January and (2) the water boat had not been since August. They were very kind and filled our 25litre water carrier from their tap so we were not without completely. But to be so dependant on a water tanker coming from Athens cannot be good - that is seriously expensive water. I asked the shop-keeper what the people 100 years ago drank but I did not get a satisfactory answer - he also was disconnected, it was something he had not thought about.
I had a discussion with my French sister Judy about water and she shed some interesting light on the subject. Over 20 years ago she and her husband Jean-Paul were on holiday in Corsica and started to talk to some farmers there. They were complaining that their water supply had dried up and they blamed the tourist industry. It seems that priority was being given to the visitors over their crops. Those farms are abandoned now. Over the last 3-4 years in S France she and JP are renovating an old house and they have made two discoveries - they have a well in their garden and the waste water from the house empties into this same well! The house has mains water and a previous owner (along with all the other villagers probably) thought it saved money to use the now disused well as a sewer! How many people are there out there who have this disconnect between clean drinking water and waste?

"Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water by Peter H Gleick. A must read.
The scariest of his statistics:-
“Every second of every day in the United States, a thousand people buy a plastic bottle of water, and every second of every day a thousand more throw one of those bottles away. That adds up to more than thirty billion bottles a year and tens of billions of dollars of sales.”