Once a year, someone from the commune visits all the houses in the village, to read all the water meters. They then issue the water bills. We had forgotten to leave them access, so we needed to submit our reading directly. However, when Brian went out to read our meter, he realised something wasn’t quite right!
The hole, where the meter is, was full of water, and he could hear a faint whooshing sound. He came back indoors to let me know we had a problem. Slightly panicked, as we had guests arriving the following day, we discussed what to do.
We hadn’t really noticed any change in our water pressure, so that was good, but if the water was rising there was certainly a risk of flooding. “I’m going to talk to Antonio” he said, and headed off up the road. Antonio is the deputy to our Mayor, and would surely know what to do.
The pair of them were soon both staring down the hole, and quickly realising the leak was before the meter, and as such was for the commune to resolve. Antonio advised he would send an email to the water company, and let us know. That, at least, was a bit of a relief.
The next day, we received a phone call from the water company worker, who told us he was in a neighbouring village and we were next on his list. He’d be with us in 15 minutes.
An hour later he’d emptied the water out of the hole, fixed the leak, and fitted us with a new meter. He’d photographed the old one, and sent the reading to the commune.
It had all gone extremely smoothly, and we had very little interruption of water, and no cost to us. All-in-all, quite a refreshing experience, in more ways than one.