Water, Water

The water story is no longer a story, it's a saga that has almost sent me packing more than once. Sometimes I thought I might pack and move to another apartment other times I was thinking more about going home. I'd like to say it's resolved but that would be premature and too optimistic. Here in Beijing, and I suppose in much of China, apartments have water meters. You have to go to the bank to buy water which is put on a water card. Then you bring it home and feed the meters-hot, cold, and recycled.
My landlord put water in my meters before I moved in, but by the end of the first week it was gone. There was water on my meter when I moved into this apartment, but I ran out of water within a week. So, the worker man came and I bought 17 tons from him. A couple days later all 17 tons were gone. So I bought 200 tons which I have since learned should be enough to last a year...certainly it is enough to fill a swimming pool. Not long afterward I had no water again even though I had been taking most of my showers at Ozone and washing my clothes at Bill's. So washing my face in the morning and washing a few dishes used up over 250 tons of water?