Water Problems

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

If you haven't done so already, be sure to try to get the water tested for biological, chemical and metal contaminants. Can that even be done here for small scale supplies like wells or streams?

Whilst that's good advice Tom, I wonder how the tests done on the normal water supply would look? 

[Tommy T.]

2 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Whilst that's good advice Tom, I wonder how the tests done on the normal water supply would look? 

Yeah...maybe we don't want to know... Ignorance is bliss?

I use the tap water for coffee and cooking, but use bottled water for regular drinking. The tap water must be very hard here because it stains the toilet and dishes if I don't dry them. I think it's mainly calcium with some iron. That isn't necessarily bad for you, but I just like the idea of heavily filtered water. And at P99 (plus 40 tip for the guy who lugs it up three flights) for three bottles, it seems like a bargain to me. It lasts us about 3 weeks depending on how thirsty we get...

[Arizona Kid]

6 hours ago, fototek1 said:

Apparently they are having the exact same issue north of Manila. Our place is very close to the Angat dam which supplies parts of Manila. The water has been turned off for more than half of each day for the past 2 months. Every time its turned back on its dirty so as many others have done, we now have a well.  

If you don't mind my asking..what was the cost of the well?

[Arizona Kid]

4 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Yeah...maybe we don't want to know... Ignorance is bliss?

I use the tap water for coffee and cooking, but use bottled water for regular drinking. The tap water must be very hard here because it stains the toilet and dishes if I don't dry them. I think it's mainly calcium with some iron. That isn't necessarily bad for you, but I just like the idea of heavily filtered water. And at P99 (plus 40 tip for the guy who lugs it up three flights) for three bottles, it seems like a bargain to me. It lasts us about 3 weeks depending on how thirsty we get...

We pay 25P per 5 gal container of drinking water. Tastes ok and they say it's reverse osmosis water. They have the big tanks at their store and everything but who knows how often they change the filters and all what's required? No regulation that I know of. The subdivision that I live in has a deep water well with a water tower. We use that water for everything but drinking.

[Gary D]

8 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

If you don't mind my asking..what was the cost of the well?

That's a how long is a piece of string, or is that pipe type of question. 100k is probably about average.

[Arizona Kid]

10 minutes ago, Gary D said:

That's a how long is a piece of string, or is that pipe type of question. 100k is probably about average.

What I meant was for a completed, serviceable well from start to finish. Including labor cost's..electric pump, holding tank, the whole shebang!

[Gary D]

34 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

What I meant was for a completed, serviceable well from start to finish. Including labor cost's..electric pump, holding tank, the whole shebang!

My answer still stands. We have no idea how deep your well will need to be. We had three well done, the first was about 60 feet but the water was full of minerals so we moved from the back of our lot to the front and went down about 80 feet, this one was done twice and was still not usable. So 300k later we gave up and now use an old deep well on the grandfather's land behind us. We think it could be a couple of hundred feet deep but the water is sweet. So to answer your question there is no answer until you try.

[jimeve]

7 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

If you haven't done so already, be sure to try to get the water tested for biological, chemical and metal contaminants. Can that even be done here for small scale supplies like wells or streams?

 I never did that, just got a someone to make a well, had it since 2007 and no problems. plenty of wells in my barangay so I knew it would be good.

[fototek1]

150000 complete. The well is a bit above average as we are using much more water than most. The in-law's put wells on all of their properties in the last 2 years.

[Tommy T.]

14 hours ago, jimeve said:

 I never did that, just got a someone to make a well, had it since 2007 and no problems. plenty of wells in my barangay so I knew it would be good.

That's good that you and your nieghbours don't have any water quality issues. Twelve years is a great track record!

The reason I mentioned that was because of the habits I see around the area - people dump used motor oil and other contaminants (like unused paint, solvents) directly onto the ground. Not to mention whatever might leach from the dumped rubbish piled up in many places.

Depending on the underlying geology, an aquifer can carry that long distances, or percolate almost straight down or take a short time or many years for the water that feeds it to reach the well level. However, I am also totally ignorant of the makeup of soils here. I just try to be cautious about what I am drinking - within reason. As AK says, there don't seem to be any controls on the private water suppliers, but that water is always super clear and tastes good.

The tap water carries particulate - it clogs up the screens on the water taps. I plan on, at least, filtering and maybe even UV irradiation of the tap water at the new home because it is a a bit remote so far from bottled water suppliers...