Cold Water Is Hot

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All the water at Camp Virginia, like everything else needed to keep this desert outpost functioning, is delivered by truck. There are two kinds of water here: potable water used in the showers, washing machines, sinks and toilets and bottled water for drinking. The potable water is stored in tanks; bottled water can be found all over the camp in a variety of locations. This is the only cold water in the camp as far as I can tell. Just about every building has one or two refrigerated cooler cases of the type used in grocery stores filled with cold water bottles and sports drinks free for the taking. There are pallets positioned around the camp stacked high with cases of half liter and one liter water bottles. Soldiers can take as many cases as they want. The heat softens the plastic and makes the water tepid but after a few hours inside a refrigerator or ice chest they’re ready to drink. Each barracks room, office and duty room has a small refrigerator crammed with chilled water bottles. Soldiers carry small ice chests in their humvees and to their duty stations to keep a ready water supply at hand. Everyone asks if I need water or invites me to help myself at any time.

The potable water, on the other hand, is a different story. At the dining hall all camp personnel are required to wash their hands before eating. Two rows of sinks line the entrance area. The sinks all have fixtures with a single faucet. Some are marked with a blue dot and some with a red dot. I turned on a blue dot faucet thinking it a cold tap and the water felt warm; I let it run a bit and instead of turning cooler the water got warmer. The next time I tried a red dot faucet…warm again. The sinks in the latrines are a single tap…warm water. There are water heaters in the shower rooms. They’re designed to make cold water hot but here it seems they make the hot cold water hotter. It’s the same with the washers in the laundry rooms. They’re commercial models with dial settings for all types of clothes, spin cycles and load sizes. There’s a switch to select a range of water temperatures including warm/cold, warm/warm and cold/cold but in reality the only temperature available is hot…period.

I don’t think the nature of the water supply matters that much to the soldiers. It’s just another idiosyncratic element of camp life. An enormous amount of resources and effort goes into supplying and maintaining all that water, hot or cold, that both sustains life and gives the soldiers on duty here the added benefit of being able to take a shower and wash their clothes. Given the repetitive, difficult and dangerous nature of the work they do in very extreme conditions, I don’t begrudge them a single drop.

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