Well Depth Around Isaan

[Fried Rice]

Hi Everyone, We are trying to dig a well on a Farm right outside Udon Thani. It is about 10 km outside the city towards Kut Chap in Chiang Pin. Girlfriends parents had some friends offer to do the job and didn't hit water. They were going to charge 20,000 baht for Pump and everything. Anyway since they didn't find water we were not charged.

But now we are looking at trying again. Some of the farms around the property have wells and from what we can gather seem to be in the 30 meter range. I asked a expat working for a drilling company that does large industrial drilling jobs around Thailand and he told me that

"Most of the area around Udon is underlain with a rock salt formation so if you can't get water fairly shallow, things get worse with depth. Maximum possible depth is usually about 50 metres. For a single house though you may be able to get a well jetted in to about 6 metres, 2" PVC casing installed and then it can be pumped with a standard household pressure pump. "

Asking around alittle more seems most people in that region for simple household use are around a depth of 30 meters, although this is only having a couple references.

I was wondering what other expierences people have run into when digging wells in the Isaan region. Any additional knowledge or advice would be helpful including a company or person able to perform the work around Udon.

[Thaipwriter]

Hi Everyone, We are trying to dig a well on a Farm right outside Udon Thani. It is about 10 km outside the city towards Kut Chap in Chiang Pin. Girlfriends parents had some friends offer to do the job and didn't hit water. They were going to charge 20,000 baht for Pump and everything. Anyway since they didn't find water we were not charged.

But now we are looking at trying again. Some of the farms around the property have wells and from what we can gather seem to be in the 30 meter range. I asked a expat working for a drilling company that does large industrial drilling jobs around Thailand and he told me that 

"Most of the area around Udon is underlain with a rock salt formation so if you can't get water fairly shallow, things get worse with depth. Maximum possible depth is usually about 50 metres. For a single house though you may be able to get a well jetted in to about 6 metres, 2" PVC casing installed and then it can be pumped with a standard household pressure pump. "

Asking around alittle more seems most people in that region for simple household use are around a depth of 30 meters, although this is only having a couple references.

I was wondering what other expierences people have run into when digging wells in the Isaan region. Any additional knowledge or advice would be helpful including a company or person able to perform the work around Udon.

Hi,

This subject has been covered in depth , before have a look back through the Isaan forum archives and all the info is available, or do a search of Isaan forum usung searchwords like depth or water or metres. cheers

[jayenram]

One small point to remember. A standard suction pump is only capable of lifting water from about 9 metres down. There are pressure assisted suction pumps available for about double the price which may be able to extract water up to 12 metres.

Any deeper than 12 metres and you will need a pressure pump. Generally these are electrical submersible pumps which are lowered down to below ground water level.

[Egor]

jayenram, What do you thing is the ideal depth for good tasting clean water?

Edited September 2, 2005 by Egor

[jayenram]

jayenram, What do you thing is the ideal depth for good tasting clean water?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's got to depend where you are but I would think 30 metres would get you relatively clean water. Whatever the depth, I wouldn't think of drinking it without filtration.

Or, until you hit bedrock.

Edited September 2, 2005 by jayenram

[chico]

There are electric deep well pumps available, "Luckystar" f.e. is one of the better brands, at about 7.000bt and they can easily handle dephts up to 50 m, maybe more.

how deep you have to go, depends on the formations below, but that can vary within a few metres.

we drilled down to 39m, just to make sure to have enough water and pressure, but got water at around 14 and 21m already.

one of our neighbours (some 200m away), drilled til 90m and didn't got any!?

first year, almost no chalk, - this year plenty, had to get a filter, and an additional one (US brand) to give us good drinking water.

area : between Burirum and Surin, near cambodia.

[jayenram]

I'm virtually in Surin, Chico.

During the wet season we had no problem drawing water with a standard suction pump (Bht 4,500.00) therefore it must have been less than 8 metres down, I guess. In the first dry season, the water 'dried up' and we replaced the standard pump with a pressure assisted (12 m) suction pump (Bht 8,000.00). Since the change, we have not run out of water in the dry seasons (4 years).

[chico]

I'm virtually in Surin, Chico.

During the wet season we had no problem drawing water with a standard suction pump (Bht 4,500.00) therefore it must have been less than 8 metres down, I guess. In the first dry season, the water 'dried up' and we replaced the standard pump with a pressure assisted (12 m) suction pump (Bht 8,000.00). Since the change, we have not run out of water in the dry seasons (4 years).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

as you said, jayenram, it all depends where you are :

we haven't had any problems yet, but some of our friends (with normal pumps less then 9 m) run almost totally out of water this year in april, as we didn't have any rain from sep 17th, last year, until may, 16th.

I have to admit, that most likely we would have been out of water too, if we would use the pump for our vegetable garden, flowers, or lotus ponds.

luckily, we have a big pond just opposite our house, and all gardening water comes from there.