In my neighbor's backyard

This is a common sight among most middle- and upper middle-class homes in Manila: a water tank. It used to be essential during the decades of an inefficient, government-managed water utility company when water pressure was weak, there were too many illegal taps into the supply, and distribution was poor. The water distribution is much better now (though there are still some areas with water supply problems), but most homes still have their water tanks. The private water utility companies are changing a lot of the old water pipes and that always disrupts supply. There are also some years where instead of just two months (April and May), we have prolonged summers and Manila's main water reserve, the Angat Dam reservoir, reaches critical levels and water has to be rationed. The water tanks just work using gravity, so they have to be higher than the house. Those flowers are bougainvillea. They're very common here too, and in other places with warm weather. I'll feature them some other time in another post.