We saw that rain water is collected all over; no rain trop is wasted.

We also learned that there are private tanks and community tanks. The water of all public buildings goes into community tanks and if needed, water will be provided from community tanks to private tanks.

One day we were waiting for Puna to return after lunch to his office to inform him that we will stay one day longer, when we learned that he will not come back this day due to back injury.

We were sitting outside of Puna’s office with the financial officer. A great place to sit in the shade and have a nice breeze from the lagoon giving us a good chill while talking.

We talked about the island, it’s people, and our next sailing destination, when he offered us to have a glass of water or a cup of cold coffee. As we had walked already for quite a while, we were very happy to take this offer. He asked us to follow him into a little kitchen. Giving each of us a cup, he pointed to a water dispenser. A plastic bottle for about 10 l water was on top of the dispenser. I thought they need to get all drinking water in these plastics bottles and started talking about this. I first did not believe the answer. The water in the plastic bottle is filled in from the water tap, the water from the tap comes from the rain water tank outside. And it is delicious and it is clean. Between the tank and the water tap there is only a mechanical filter. (Based on my experience with my water maker I assume it’s a 5 micron filter.)

Why can they do it?

The answer is extremely simple: No air pollution! For thousands of miles until the South American continent there is nothing, which can pollute the air except for the smoke stags of sea going vessels. Although they are real very bad air polluters, they don’t effect the quality of an off of the beaten tracks islands like Penrhyn.

Being here on this remote islands, drinking very delicious rain water, I see even more clearly how badly the politicians perform in the rich countries where every voter wants to have the own over-powered car. A sad story, beside the wonderful story of rain water as drinking water.