Living in Peru, #26 - Water #2

Admittedly, we live in one of the nicest, if not the nicest, houses in Huancayo.  It was bought as a shell to be the future mission home, and about eight months after arriving, we moved in.
Most dwellings here have a water storage tank on the roof, to give water pressure during the very frequent outages of the city supply.

For aesthetics, our big (5,000 liter) supply tank was placed under the driveway, with pumps to maintain pressure to house.  Nice idea, but simplicity seems to be key in this part of the world.

When the water shut off, I went to the pump house to reset the switches one more time, but found the pumps to be operating.  However, there was no pressure on the gauges.

So, I opened the cover on the tank.  The enormous thing had disappeared, replaced by mud and water. When the local Operations and Maintenance men came to inspect, they realized it had sunk about 18 inches, rupturing all connections with the pumps.

So... with no one in this region qualified to work on such stuff (!), they called the guy up from Lima (!).  As per normal, he took the bus, but was delayed for 12 hours by a multiple-truck crash in the snow on the 15,745-foot Ticlio Pass.
When he finally arrived, he did what he could, but has to return tomorrow to continue the effort.

Meanwhile, we are hooked directly to the intermittent city supply, and we keep our fingers crossed when showers or toilet flushings are needed.
All of this just in time for my sister Mary Anne and her husband Charles to arrive in a couple of days. We wonder if guests are just bad luck for the water, or what.
May the wind be at your back and your water supply function, too.
Dave & Paula