What failed, how long your tank will last, and when to call the truck — the calm version of a stressful morning.
Quick answer: first find out what failed — the public supply, your well, or your own pump. Then check how much stored water you have left and start using it carefully. If the outage will outlast your tank, order a cisterna delivery early in the day — same-day is usually possible, but trucks book up fast during regional rationing.
Opening the tap to nothing is a small shock every time, and in Guanacaste's dry months it happens to thousands of households at once. Here's the calm, practical sequence we recommend — the same one we walk callers through on WhatsApp every week.
Ask a neighbor or check your ASADA or AyA WhatsApp group: is the whole street dry, or just you? A neighborhood outage means rationing or an aqueduct problem — annoying, but usually temporary and announced. If it's just your house, the suspects are your own system: a tripped or burned pump, an empty well, a stuck float valve in the tinaco, or an air-locked line. Knowing which failure you have decides everything that follows — a pump repair and a water delivery solve completely different problems.
Look at your tinaco or cistern level honestly. A typical 1,100-liter tinaco supports a family of four for about two to three days of careful use — that means short showers, no laundry, no garden. Switch the household to conservation mode immediately: it's much cheaper to stretch the water you have than to need an emergency delivery at night.
If the outage is scheduled to end tomorrow and your tank is half full, you probably don't need us — and we'll tell you so. But if your well has dropped, the rationing has no announced end, or you have a full house of guests, order the delivery in the morning. During regional cuts every cisterna in the province is booked by mid-afternoon, and morning callers get same-day service while evening callers wait.
A 5,000-liter load into your storage buys one to two weeks of normal life for a family — enough time for the well to recover or the aqueduct to stabilize. Here's what deliveries cost.
The households that ride out Guanacaste's dry season comfortably all do the same things: they add storage (a second tinaco or a proper cistern is the single best investment), they fix leaks (a dripping toilet silently wastes hundreds of liters a week), and the ones on marginal wells schedule preventive top-ups through March and April instead of waiting for the emergency. If that's your situation, ask us about a recurring route — it's cheaper than emergency dispatch and you stop thinking about water entirely.
Out of water right now? Send us your location or WhatsApp a photo of your tank — you'll get a firm quote and a delivery window right away.
Check whether it's just you or the whole street (ask a neighbor or your ASADA's WhatsApp group), then check your storage tank level and your pump. If the outage will last more than a day or your tank is empty, order a cisterna delivery — same-day is usually possible.
Scheduled rationing is usually hours to a couple of days, announced by AyA or your local ASADA. Dry-season well failures are different — a well that has dropped may need weeks of reduced use to recover, which is when trucked water bridges the gap.
Plan on 50–100 liters per person per day for comfortable basic use (drinking, cooking, washing, toilets). A 1,000-liter tinaco covers a family of four for two to three careful days; a 5,000-liter delivery covers one to two weeks.
Same-day water truck delivery across Guanacaste. Firm price before the truck rolls.