- Home
- Member
- Akira
- Akira's entries
- Water Shortage
Water Shortage
- 107
- 12
- 2
When I went to my office in early morning yesterday, a lot of water was flushed out from a sprinkler in the parking lot.
I asked a staff member who is in charge of building maintenance to call a plumber.
The water pipe was broken off and our water line in our building was shut off.
We found out it would take two days to be repaired and we couldn’t use water in our building at all.
The most difficult trouble was the toilets.
We asked people in neighbor buildings to use their toilets for our staff whose number is over 100.
Some of them had used the toilets in our building before the trouble notice.
Of course, they were remained in them without being flushed, although nobody declared the facts.
I wondered if I would declare the fact, if I were them.
Today’s morning, portable toilets were set in our garage.
In the evening, the pipe was fixed and we could use water in our building again.
I learned just water shortage for a few days causes a big trouble.
I asked a staff member who is in charge of building maintenance to call a plumber.
The water pipe was broken off and our water line in our building was shut off.
We found out it would take two days to be repaired and we couldn’t use water in our building at all.
The most difficult trouble was the toilets.
We asked people in neighbor buildings to use their toilets for our staff whose number is over 100.
Some of them had used the toilets in our building before the trouble notice.
Of course, they were remained in them without being flushed, although nobody declared the facts.
I wondered if I would declare the fact, if I were them.
Today’s morning, portable toilets were set in our garage.
In the evening, the pipe was fixed and we could use water in our building again.
I learned just water shortage for a few days causes a big trouble.
Latest entries
| Moai (4) |
| Orlando in LA (2) |
| Bid-rigging (10) |
| How to Scold a Subordinate (7) |
| Hairdresser (8) |
Latest comments
| May 24th Pohnpei |
| May 24th casius |
| May 24th jennyc |
| May 23rd Pohnpei |
| May 23rd Watchmands |
Entries by Month
When I went to my office in early morning yesterday morning, a lot of water was flushed out from a sprinkler in the parking lot.
Easier to understand. It is only a recommendation, not mandatory
I asked thea staff member who is in charge of building maintenance to call a plumber.
It should be "the" if he is the only building maintenance staff member.
The water pipe was broken off and theour water line in our building was shut off.
Since you use "our" in "our building" it is repetitive to use it twice.
The most daifficultn trouble was the toilets.
Not required but sounds better.
We asked the people in the neighboring buildings to use their toilets for our staff whose number is over 100.
Not sure what you mean by "whose number is over 100"
Some ostaff them had used the toilets in our building before the trouble notice had been put up.
Too vague.
Of course, they were rematoinledts didn 'them without being flushed, althoughnd nobody dectolared us they fhactd been used.
I wondered if I would dteclarel thsomeone fact, if I were them.
"declare the fact" isn't commonly used.
Today’his morning, portable toilets were set in our garage.
I learned howjust water shortage, even for a few days, causes sucha big trouble.
This is a very complex sentence.
Do you understand?
Or: Yesterday, when I went to my office in the early morning, a lot of water was gushing out from a sprinkler in the parking lot. Or: ... gushing out of ...
I agree with Josiah that “went to my office yesterday morning” sounds better. :-)
I asked a staff member who is in charge of building maintenance to call a plumber.
If there is more than one staff member in charge of maintenance, it is OK to use “a staff member.” :-)
The water pipe was broken off and the water line in our building was shut off. (The main water pipe was broken and fell away and then the water line to our building was shut off by someone.)The water pipe was broken and the water in our building was shut off. (The main water pipe broke so someone closed our water pipe also.)Or: The main water line was broken and our water was cut off. (The main water pipe broke so no water reached our building.)
This depends on whether there was there one water line or two, and whether someone turned off the water, or if the flow of water was caused because of the break.
We found out it would take two days to be repaired and we couldn’t use water in our building at all. Or just: We found out that we would have no water in the building for two days.
Or: The biggest problem was the toilets.
We asked people in neighboring buildings if our staff, which numbers more than 100, could use their toilets.
Some of them had used the toilets in our building before the trouble began.
I think Josiah’s correction says some of the people in your building had used the toilets in the other building previously. If some of the people in the other building had used toilets in your building before they stopped working, then I think you could use my version.
Of course, some toilets were found unflushed, although no one would admit to the fact. Of course, some people used the toilets without flushing, although nobody admitted it.
eeew!
I wondered if I would admit to it, if I were they (who did it). If I were “they” is grammatically correct, but it sounds odd even to native English speakers. You could avoid the issue by saying, “... if I were one of the ones (who failed to flush).”
Or: I learned how a water shortage, even for just a few days, can cause big trouble.
It was too late. The sewerage remained in the toilets.
We found out that a theif broke the pipe in order to steal some parts of it.
Thank you for your further advise.
I found a story about the theft of copper wire from a light rail train in Seattle, Washington, in the U.S. Thieves somehow managed to steal almost six and a half kilometers of wire from alongside the tracks. They made off with about 32,000 kilograms copper wire worth about ¥690 per kilo.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/transportation/article/Thieves-steal-4-miles-of-copper-wire-from-light-3552820.php
Other smaller thefts of copper wire from things like mobile phone cell towers might net thieves a lot less money, but still might get them more than robbing a liquor store.
------------------
In a book dated around 1960, I ran across a little anecdote about a problem in Australia with Aborigines climbing up power line poles to remove the glass insulators that kept the electricity flowing to the next pole. Apparently the insulator glass was the perfect material to make arrowheads (much like obsidian, the volcanic glass some of the ancient peoples of Central America used for the same purpose).
But rather than having police patrol the poles along the lines, and prosecuting anyone they caught stealing the insulators, the government solved the problem simply by leaving a little supply of insulators at the bottom of each pole.