Well Water

[MrJay]

Hi issaners,ive had my well for a couple of years,goes down to a depth of 25 mtrs,the water looks great,i shower in it and wash clothes,do the garden ect,apart from drinking it,i get the big 12 baht bottles,and drink them, some one told me they come from the same source(well water) i always thought the big bottles were treated rain water,anyhow what id like to know is anybody out there drinking water straight from the well,and is it safe to do so..thanks........jay

[nidge]

In my in-laws house we drink rain water all year round but in my house near the city we have 10 baht bottles delivered. If it's treated rain water then they are treating it very strangely as it often tastes "earthy" whereas the rain water, (untreated), always tastes good. So i would guess that the bottled water comes from a well similar to yours.

Nidge.

[chownah]

I live in the north so your well water is probably different from mine but when mine is pumped out of the ground it stinks....I run it through a slow sand filter (a one metre diametre cylindrical tower about 3 or 4 metres tall...made from concrete rings stacked up etc.) and when it comes out it is drinkable as indicated by health dept. water quality testing.

Chownah

[Lourens]

If your well is sunk near a rice paddy, there is a possibility that the water might contain chemicals used in fertilizer. These chemicals might prove harmful. Also, it may contain a high percentage of Calcium which may cause kidney stones if it is consumed in large quantities over long periods of time. We have a well and use the water mainly for the garden. But some of the cattle minders give this water to their animals and they seem do be doing well enough without any side effects that I can distinguish. There are very simple water testing kits available from most of the agricultural suppliers that can be used to measure things like pH, Calcium, Fe and other heavy metals. I suggest you try one just for interest sake. I did, and found our water quality acceptable but, as always, we stay on the safe side and drink only bottled water. At least, if we do get sick of that, we have someone else to blame.

Edited February 2, 2008 by Lourens

[yorkman]

We have both mains water and well water. Supplies from the mains were intermittent.

We had our well water tested, and it was potable, but nevertheless we filtered it for drinking purposes. This is bound to vary from area to area, even within a short distance, as something (chemicals perhaps) may have got into the aquefer.

The 20B bottles smell, to me, just like the mains water. Slightly earthy as mentioned above. I suspect that the "Peckham Spring" is alive and well in Thailand

MrJay. Just get your well water tested. If you shower in it (some will get in your mouth and nose), and doubtless all your plates and cutlery are washed in it, and you have suffered no ill effects, its probably fine.

[jay-uk]

Well water's fine when filtered. We have two wells which feed a holding tank sitting on a small water tower. The water gets put through first large carbon filter for showers and washing up. Then it goes through a small ceramic filter for drinking. Just to make sure it is really safe after that I boil it let it cool and then put it in the fridge. No after taste or anything earthy and no bad stumachs so far but the filters should be replaced every 12 months if used regular. The filter systems can be purchased from most hardware stores locally.

Edited February 2, 2008 by jay-uk

[ronthompson]

I am under the impression the 12 Bht water is from the Reverse Osomsis process. Which is the same as Bangkok and the water from Southern California, SPARKLETS< was from the same process.

As I understand it, the process it can be from any water source.

[fruity]

The well in our front garden has been there thirty-odd years & was the only source of drinking water for the entire village before mains water was introduced. These days it is used exclusively for watering purposes, however, my wifes family prefer to drink from here as they say it is sweeter! Our well never runs dry, is used daily & the water is crystal clear. It looks a little different these days.

[MrJay]

Thank you all for your time,so not a good idea to drink direct,ill get the water tested in town 1st has i know where to go now, then look at the other options you all posted.. thanx jay.

[typhoon]

Hi issaners,ive had my well for a couple of years,goes down to a depth of 25 mtrs,the water looks great,i shower in it and wash clothes,do the garden ect,apart from drinking it,i get the big 12 baht bottles,and drink them, some one told me they come from the same source(well water) i always thought the big bottles were treated rain water,anyhow what id like to know is anybody out there drinking water straight from the well,and is it safe to do so..thanks........jay

s

Hello Mr Jay, stick on the bottles...(er..water I mean) rain water is ok, just make sure the rain gives the roof a good wash off first.

Regards.

[Issangeorge]

Mr. Jay our well supplies all the water for our house, never runs dry and the family drinks the water, I do also but i don't drink that much water except in the hot season. The water is not filtered and we have never had any trouble, I had more problems when I lived on Koh Samui and only drank bottle water, I kept getting an amoeba from the bought ice. If I have farang friends visit I give them bottled water. Issangeorge.

[danfred]

We have 4 sources for our water.

1.The well supplies the garden.

2. The village main supplies all the indoor plumbing (including the clothes washer).

3. The water man delivers the big plastic bottles for the family to drink (I personally don't like the taste, but it's not that bad really).

4. I personally drink the ARO brand bottled water from Makro as I prefer my water to have no taste at all and I can't tell any difference between it and the premium brands.

Also, the ice man brings a big sack of ice every morning and I suspect that is made from some form of treated water. It does not appear to add any noticeable taste to the bottled water I drink.

I never liked the idea of home-flitration (though I did it back in the west). I always found myself questioning the state of the filters which affected my peace of mind and enjoyment of drinking the water.

[Lickey]

Seems like our tap/mains water is specially treated for those keen on reguritation and diarherroa, ok for showering and cleaning teeth but not for drinking, even boiled i wont drink it, we buy the 10bht big bottles of mineral water, decant into smaller bottles, i add concentrated orange or other flavers and fridge them overnight to take to farm next day, we have a 23 mtr deep borehole on farm for irrigation purposes, a few weeks ago i was so hot and no juice left, i drank some of the pump water, it had a slight metallic smell but tasted ok, and was cold!! no ill effects, so we are thinking of getting it tested by the local goverment, and perhps flogging it in those big bottles!!

[Gary A]

We always bought those big plastic translucent bottles of water. One day I removed the seal, took off the cap and thought I saw something in the bottle. There were mosquito larvae swimming around inside the bottle. I went to Tesco Lotus and bought a three stage filter. The first is a sediment filter the second is activated charcoal and the final filter is ceramic. That was when we lived in Jomtien. Now we live up country And I have a larger filter. We save rain water in a 1,500 liter fiberglass tank. That's our drinking water but before that we filtered the village well water. Never had any problems. You should change the activated charcoal every six months or so. Activated charcoal is amazing filter material.