Is this year exceptionally dry?

[CDNinKS]

We have a piece of land in Hin Lek Fai that is serviced by a community well water system. Apparently the well has gone dry. Just wondering if this is a reoccurring problem every year or not? Rumors that we will be getting on to the Gov water main in a year or so........

[bozzman101]

possibly the crap wells sunk in the first place only 4 inch pipe in ours and water axcess holes cut with angel grinder standard shoddy work manship some one might know what should be in place at the bottom of the pipe to stop the dam thing clogging

[Super Joe]

We have a piece of land in Hin Lek Fai that is serviced by a community well water system. Apparently the well has gone dry. Just wondering if this is a reoccurring problem every year or not?

Don't know exactly where you are but deep bores (wells) gradually running dryer the further we progress into the dry months, is a common issue in parts of town. Running completely dry I've not heard of. Afraid to say at the moment it will re-occur, until such time as suitable town mains get to your area.
A solution is to band together, strike a deal with a water tanker guy and all chip in to have your main storage tank/s topped up. They only buy the water for 11B/1,000 litres, so they will come down in price if they see its a regular arrangement.

possibly the crap wells sunk in the first place only 4 inch pipe in ours and water access holes cut with angel grinder standard shoddy work manship some one might know what should be in place at the bottom of the pipe to stop the dam thing clogging

Complete red herring IMO. Knowing your development, a 4" submersible bore pump has the capacity to pump your entire developments usage requirents using just 10% of the pumps capacity, it's the lack of water 75 metres down that's the issue, particularly in the dry season. A larger 6" or 8" dia. pump would not serve any purpose in the dry months apart from being more uneconomical and costly to run.
Agree lack of maintenance is an issue, ie: pulling the pump up and cleaning the inlets of sand, stones, silt or whatever. But regarding "what should be in place at the bottom of the pipe to stop the dam thing clogging" ... the pumps aren't at the bottom of the bore casing pipes, the pumps should be around 30ft (or as specified) above the bottom. The cr@p gets in the inlets at entry level, and goes back to your valid point about regular, routine cleaning, but this involves banging your head against the wall

SJ

[Nereus]

There is some good theory on the following site. I have not had much to do with bores in Thailand, but from experience in Australia, the type of casing used is very important. It is not unusual to make up a length of perforated casing from the same type as used for the rest of the bore for the water inlet zone, but in sandy types of soil it is preferable to use a factory produced perforated, or slotted, section with very small openings. There are also various types of screens used to help stop the ingress of sand and small stones.

A 4 inch, or 100 mm bore hole is fairly standard, but has nothing to do with the size of the pump. As mentioned, the pump should be positioned well off the bottom of the bore hole, and a sufficient length of the perforated casing installed below it. Some problems will also show up after a period of time if the casing material is not either of good quality, or suitable for the soil type and / or water quality. (corrosion for one)

Not much help if the water supply dries up, or if you cannot obtain the correct material to construct the bore in the first place, but may make interesting reading for anybody interested.

http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/water/pdf/bo ... chap_9.pdf

[CDNinKS]

Thanks for the input all. We are not there at the moment, just have this info from the builder. I will look into the idea of getting water trucked in for the main tank when we get back in April.......if the problem is still there by then.

If this is something that we can expect every year then I'm thinking I will construct a large underground tank out of concrete for storage to tide us over these events.

[poosmate]

A large storage tank? How big? I don't think you will be able to efficiently store enough water to "tide you over '' A house with a pool and garden ( 800m) will use around 1000 litres a day if the garden is watered and the pool topped up.( can be 2000 + in my experience).
As already stated water can be trucked in and can cost as little as 10 Baht per 1000 litres.But be fair to the supplier as costs including fuel, labour and repairs I have found ( using my own truck) make the cost delivered around 35-50 Baht per m2. (And they like to make some profit)!

[CDNinKS]

I'm from the prairies in Canada where water was always a scarce resource so most farm folk had a tank (we called them cisterns) in the ground.

A cistern 4 meters x 4 meters x 3 meters deep, which is not really all the that big, would hold 48,000 liters or about 40 days worth. Increasing that to 5 x 5 would give you 75,000 liters or about 60 days worth........hopefully more than enough to "tide me over" :-)

Actually, my plan is to make it 5 x 5 with a divider to partition off a section that will be the pool surge tank. Then I will build to pool pump house/storage shed on top of it.

[poosmate]

40 Days? Hin lek Fai has not had rain for 3 months.Maybe another month or so to go yet - if we are lucky! Keep digging

[poosmate]

To add to the rumour I heard a Pipe was being planned to service some Royal land after Black Mountain which is suffering drought. The pipe is apparently routed through Hin Lek Fai from Pranburi. If it happens and if it will be for all to use, time will tell.

[heretostay]

Every year it's getting drier, look at the hills so brown, lucky we have n't had any serious fires here, with the locals so hell bent on burning everything, with such a water shortage, the construction of swimming pools should be banned,the municipality water is off most days and when its on its dark brown,

even when HH was a village they had water problems, but the municipality is happy running water trucks 24 hrs a day to make money.


save water- drink beer

[CDNinKS]

The pipe is apparently routed through Hin Lek Fai from Pranburi. If it happens and if it will be for all to use, time will tell.

That may be the same rumor I heard......18 months from now they think Gov supplied water in Hin Lek Fai......we can only hope

[Super Joe]

A cistern 4 meters x 4 meters x 3 meters deep, which is not really all the that big, would hold 48,000 liters or about 40 days worth.

Seems a fair old construction expense though just for around 6 weeks back-up, presumably there's measures required to keep the water hygienic if it's standing for months waiting to be used at the back end of the dry months.

Using a tanker service during the worst of the dry period is quite a practical and cheap solution to ensure adequate water, but it can get 'hung up' where the management/developer of a project, nor the residents wanting to foot the bill, result = people running out of water. But it's really not that costly when viewed relative to your overall yearly water bills, we've found tanker guys in the area who eager for the regular business provide 2,000 litres for 120 Baht. Based on an average usage of 1,000 litres/day for a 400-600m2 plot with garden and pool, that only works out 1,800 Baht per month for each of the worst 3 months of the dry season.

The local PYB has also said 18 months for government mains which went in one ear and out the other, but since Poosmate has metioned it's for Royal land, and add in that the Queen has a new residence built near Black Mountain, then maybe 18 months will be right.

SJ

[CDNinKS]

Actually since it is sealed from the sunlight and is in the ground it remains cleaner and clearer than most other sources of water. I will also plan on running the gutters into it to catch rain water. Also it wouldn't be just sitting there, the main or community well water will be plumbed into it with a float valve and everyday household/garden use will come out of it, just the same as the small tanks everyone has behind their houses, only on a bigger scale.

To give you an example of stored water quality, when I was in Canada I had an in ground pool and of course it a seasonal pool and needed to be "winterized" for the cold months. They sell special pool covers for this purpose. Being frugal (cheap), I didn't want to shell out for the real cover and bought an inexpensive plastic tarp. It worked well to keep all the leaves and debris out of the pool, but when I took the cover off in the spring I had a frog pond. Green slimy algae. Took huge amounts of chemicals and work to get it clean again. The next year I bought the proper cover, which one of its qualities was a black plastic layer that allowed no light to pass thru. The next spring when I took the cover off, the water was crystal clear, just a few worms and such on the bottom. A quick vacuum, a chlorine shock and we were back in business.

Just think about where most municipal water comes from, either wells or reservoirs and then think about all the animals, reptiles and insects that are in those reservoirs. My cistern will be no less hygienic than those sources.

I sure hope all the rumors about the water main thru Hin Lek Fai have some truth to them......

[Super Joe]

Understand now CD thanks, thought initially it would be some kind of seperate 'held in storage' supply that would only start to be used in the later dry months (around March-May) when your supply really dried up.

Cheers,
SJ

[PeteC]

A thought on this. Reading these comments is like deja vu to Pattaya 20 years ago. Unbridled new construction of hotels and homes with no thought whatsoever of the resources required. It got so bad with lack of city water they finally had to run a pipeline along Sukhumvit from the Sattahip area to supply the required amount. There's a second pipeline under construction as well from some river in the direction of Chachengsao. The HH powers need to really think about this as if your wells are running dry they are going to eventually need to pipe from somewhere as development continues.

A second issue is sewage and had hoped we'd see something in the 'Environment Watch' thread by now on this. They need to build more treatment plants as the only other option is the sea, which really shouldn't be an option. Pete