Building a well on Samui
After yesterdays post about the drought in our garden, here's a post on how we actually get our water on Koh Samui.
Since a year or two, the government has put water pipes in the ground that are supposed to deliver water to the majority of houses, mainly if your house located near one of the major roads on Samui.
The current drought however has already disrupted this water delivery for over a couple of months in many areas and especially in the Chaweng area.
My wife's youngest sister had a problem with water delivery and her parents decided it was time to put a well in for the youngest daughter.These wells are hand dug and take a week or two to build, pending on the local water levels and how deep the well has to be.
As can be seen in the picture above, it's a fairly simple construction with some build in sun cover.
Since our and the younger sisters houses are build on the slopes of a hill, the water levels aren't too deep and they hit water at relatively shallow depth, the reflection of the water shows clearly in the picture.
The pulley looks simple but is very effective. The hook will have a bucket attached to it and inside the well somebody will fill the buckets all day long.
This is the fortification of the actual well, once they have finished digging the concrete circle parts will be lowered into the well to prevent it from collapsing.
Like in the tunnels of the 'Great Escape' movie, loads of sand need to be disposed of and in Plai Laem it's slightly easier than in the movie, it's just heaped up behind the well construction site.
Since our and the younger sisters houses are build on the slopes of a hill, the water levels aren't too deep and they hit water at relatively shallow depth, the reflection of the water shows clearly in the picture.They will still dig deeper though and somebody will have to get in there and put the baskets in the water and mud to get the bottom dug deeper.
The pulley looks simple but is very effective. The hook will have a bucket attached to it and inside the well somebody will fill the buckets all day long.
This is the fortification of the actual well, once they have finished digging the concrete circle parts will be lowered into the well to prevent it from collapsing.
Like in the tunnels of the 'Great Escape' movie, loads of sand need to be disposed of and in Plai Laem it's slightly easier than in the movie, it's just heaped up behind the well construction site.Some 9 years back these wells went for around 30.000,-THB, nowadays they range between 40 and 50K, pending on the depth the well needs.
Our well hasn't dried up since we had it build, I can only hope for the younger sister that she will be as lucky, but looking at the water ground level of her well, it looks like she will be just fine.
Camille
2 comments:
Camille, I am surprised how close to the house the well is dug given where our toilet waste goes here in Thailand.
Depending where the septic tank/drain field is it could contaminate the water.
Hi Mike,
A very valid point, although I didn't consider this at all, I will follow up on it and see what father in law has to say to this.
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