Continuing the water watch theme for the week, let’s talk sterna. I don’t mean the plural for sternum as in breastbone, but the water chambers found beneath Symi houses. Before pumps and pipes, water would be drawn from this well by hand, having been collected from the roof during the winter and any other time it rains. What you had by the end of May was what had to last you until October, or until the next heavy fall of rain. It was important to keep these chambers clean and dry, and the well opening was often in the courtyard, set in an alcove in the wall and painted white for cleanliness. Now, we have pumps that are either submerged into the sometimes-massive chambers and other times, placed above ground with the pipe down near the bottom of the sterna – but not too close to the sediment that gathers there.
These sterna can be large. The one beneath our house is the size of my study, a good 12 feet by twelve and probably just as deep. The only problem with it is, it’s broken, and has been for some years. It was invaded by the roots of a fig tree some years ago now, and to repair it would have meant knocking down a wall, taking out the pump, draining what was below the root line, killing the fig tree (which we and the neighbours did with glee), and then relining the whole thing before refilling it. Expensive, disruptive and complicated. Instead, our landlord gave as a 500-litre water tank to sit on our bathroom roof.
That’s all well and good, and worked fine once we put the pump in it because he’d overlooked that minor fact, but it means we can be limited to how much water we can use. As the mains supply feeds the tank three mornings per week, it’s not usually a problem, but at Easter and other long holiday weekends, we can run dry. If we can’t fill up between Wednesday of one week and Wednesday of the following, for example. We can’t collect rainwater because the opening to the tank is too narrow. So, we’re forever on water watch, and when there’s a bank holiday, I pop onto the bathroom roof to open the tank and peer in, then give my verdict as to whether we can shower or flush that day.
People often ask if the water on Symi is safe to drink, and they get various replies depending on who they ask. Some say yes, but others say, since the desalination plant was installed, no. I say it depends on what’s in your sterna. Our tank is quite clean (being plastic there’s nothing growing at the bottom of it), and yet now and then, the water runs a strange orange colour from the taps, as if it’s run through a pocket of rust, which it might have done, but surely it would always run that colour? Odd. Anyway… We use the water for washing up, cleaning teeth and so on, and also use it for ice as I am sure, do most businesses.
The other water we have a lot of is the sea, and that’s why you have a few images from various angles showing my view of the sea, taken from my neighbourhood. (Except the last one.)
