Water from my well in Koh Phangan.

[delgarcon]

Because of water shortages last year, I decided to build a well. Although we don't drink the water, we use it to wash the dishes and it appears to be clean. Recently, however, I asked someone where the sewage from our neighbourhood went (I naively thought that there was a communal septic tank which was emptied regularly). Anyway, it apparently dissipates into the ground below the house, which is what concerns me as the supply for the well comes from the same ground! I shouldn't be surprised as I know for a fact that certain coastal restaurants and resorts in KP empty their sewage into the sea. Does anyone know whether or not sewage is treated anywhere in KP?

My other question is how can I purify the water in my tank, is there something that I can add to the water?

[Basil B]

Maybe first thing is get the water tested, if anything for peace of mind... hope other members can advise where.

And looking forward to 7/11 stocking Spa Phangan

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

In general, for private use you should always build a deep well, where the water is collected from under the natural clay layer. However, these suckers cost 120k and up. Any standard dug well is prone to contamination. For decontamination I suggest chlorine, available in liquid, powder, granulate and tablets at any good pool store. To make the well water become drinking water, I suggest you to buy a water purification system that has an ionizer. We have this one and the water is pure bliss!

http://www.pureproionizers.com/ja-703.htm

[kovaltech]

In general, for private use you should always build a deep well, where the water is collected from under the natural clay layer. However, these suckers cost 120k and up. Any standard dug well is prone to contamination. For decontamination I suggest chlorine, available in liquid, powder, granulate and tablets at any good pool store. To make the well water become drinking water, I suggest you to buy a water purification system that has an ionizer. We have this one and the water is pure bliss!

http://www.pureproionizers.com/ja-703.htm

An ionizer does not make / filter into drinking water, be aware....

Nor does Chlorine, nor does ozone or just simple filters...

The only water , safe to drink, is RO water, same as in every bottle sealed in Thailand.

Filtered before membrane and treated with UV lamp after sets in Thailand available around 300$

For only shower purposes and washing dishes, chlorine in first tank, and 2 media filters (sand) after that

Be aware for your showers about the lime in the water, there a ionizer ( salt) will help

A lot of water wells are also contaminated with iron... rust, needs a special system to get rid of that...

[delgarcon]

Thanks for your replies, I think I'll find out where and how I can get the water tested. I'm never going to drink it, but I shower, brush my teeth and do the dishes in it. Maybe chlorine is the way to go, I'll let you know what I find out.

[Wombat6]

I once sold real Estate in a beachside Suburb in Western Australia which didn't have any services...ie water and sewerage. Naturally a well/bore had to be sunk for water. and the Local Council Health Dept. stipulated that any well had to be located outside a radius of 100 Feet of any septic tank to be safe from any contamination. Good for the people who developed first but it did.cause problems for some people later as there was nowhere to sink a bore. In these some cases, negotiations were required between neighbours to re-locate septic Tanks

[NickJ]

Chances are you will be fine. Even the septic system you describe, cement rings with a metal disc cap need to be sucked.

Your well should be deep and far enough away......

Edited August 8, 2015 by NickJ

[ksamuiguy]

You can buy an E-Coli test kit on the internet, this is the main bacteria that comes from septic tanks and is an indicator of serwage in the water.

A bottle (small non sented) househole bleach will kill almost every thing. I disinfect my well every 3 months this way.

[beecnx]

This has been an ongoing issue that the Thai government is fully aware of. Several years ago when Samui exploded with resorts and hotels, the businesses decided instead of proper sewage treatment, to dispose of all their waste straight into the water table. After about a year, one of my doctor friends started seeing an increase in skin infections, typhoid, and a host of other ailments. Once the root cause was determined, the evidence was brought to the government of Samui, and Surat Thani. Rather than correct the issue, this is why fresh water is now pumped over to the island. Thai logic.

[Keesters]

Chances are you will be fine. Even the septic system you describe, cement rings with a metal disc cap need to be sucked.

Your well should be deep and far enough away......

Septic tanks do not NEED to be sucked if properly handled. I have 2 for my 30 year-old house and NEITHER have EVER been sucked. Use

Edited August 9, 2015 by Keesters

[Rooo]

Chances are you will be fine. Even the septic system you describe, cement rings with a metal disc cap need to be sucked.

Your well should be deep and far enough away......

Septic tanks do not NEED to be sucked if properly handled. I have 2 for my 30 year-old house and NEITHER have EVER been sucked. Use

I use Bactocell.

[lopburi3]

You should not need anything more than normal crap to keep a septic system working - the issue is cleaners/bleach getting into them and killing the bacteria. Just feed it the good stuff, without the cleaners, and it should be fine.

[mango66]

I once sold real Estate in a beachside Suburb in Western Australia which didn't have any services...ie water and sewerage. Naturally a well/bore had to be sunk for water. and the Local Council Health Dept. stipulated that any well had to be located outside a radius of 100 Feet of any septic tank to be safe from any contamination. Good for the people who developed first but it did.cause problems for some people later as there was nowhere to sink a bore. In these some cases, negotiations were required between neighbours to re-locate septic Tanks

Good luck in Thailand for this,

but take care that your neighbour after request will not piss on Y... !!!!

[khunPer]

I live at Samui and has an old-fashioned well; close to beach, so not deep, about 8 meters. The water by the beach at Samui is often little orange or red-colored due to ocher or rust. Furthermore there are septic tanks and other drain tanks, from for example kitchens, in the neighborhood – including my own tanks, that I should know the condition of – so bacteria is a question for concern. Unfortunately we do not have public water available in my area.

If it can be any help for you, I will share what I use. I have penned a simple diagram to supplement the text.

Worst fear is the E-coli from septic tanks; however a real well working septic – that’s better not to empty but keep going with the bacteria culture – should not lead much out, said to clean 80+%, but you never know about Thai neighbors with ring-tanks only. I read that E-coli bacteria normally clump into larger clusters, and many aid organizations says that just a simple piece of cloth can clean water in disaster areas; so a mechanical filter should be able to reduce the majority, if not remove all.

I use a pressure sand-filer and two small pre- and post-filters. The sand filter is just filled with normal pool-filter sand, and that works fine. The post-filer is 0.3-micron ceramic filter that is supposed to remove the majority of bacteria (some manufacturers claims more than 99%). The pre-filter is supposed to remove larger particles than the sand, i.e. a 5 or 10 micron filter, but real-life-use has shown that also a 0.3-micron ceramic filter works better here, and keep the sand-filter in a condition, where backwash is not need every week or two, which saves water. The ceramic filters are in clear plastic filter houses, so easy to see when they get dirty, and they are very easy to clean and can last for long time, if taken care of. I normally clean ceramic pre-filter once a week, and something like ever two-month I backwash the sand filter and clean the post-filter, which is actually hardly dirty. The filters also remove most of the reddish color.

Remember that the well gets air; the local well-experts says either an open top, or just flush some water straight from the pump back into the well from the top, so it get mixed with air, some 10-15 minutes daily – otherwise the water can obtain bad smell. Experience may show what you need for your well.

Legionella bacteria can be a risk in water tanks where the temperature is between 20 and 45 degree Celsius (the bacteria die at temperatures over 50 centigrade). In my storage tank I have installed a small submerged pump, 80-120 watt, that circulate the water through a ceramic filter and an UV-lamp – timer-controlled, so the UV only burns some 4 hours a day – and at the exit hose/pipe I mounted an end-piece from a tiny aquarium pump to mix air into the water. Air both reduces bacteria and algae, and removes any bad smell; the principle with the water steps in waterworks. The cost of running an approximately 100W pump is about 12 baht a day, but the pump could be timer controlled.

The only real costly item in the set-up is the pressure sand filter, which comes in both stainless steel and fiber (I would today prefer the latter), a 50 liter steel-pressure-filter will cost in the area around 20,000 baht; however, you may not need a sand filter, if your water is otherwise clean. The house for a small filter costs about 800 baht (if my memory serves me right) and a ceramic filter is about 500 baht. A submerged 80W pump is around 2,000 baht and a UV-lamp (house & lamp) about 4,500 baht (maybe less, depending of the size of lamp).

If you wish to add anything to clean water and reduce bacteria, a very good alternative to chlorine is Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2); that has within the last decade been mandatory in a number of country’s waterworks (including some US states), instead of chlorine and/or pumping air into the water. Hydrogen Peroxide is just water with an extra Oxygen atom, which is released so just water and oxygen (2xH2O + O2); the method is used by NASA to clean water in space (urine can become drinking water). Hydrogen Peroxide is totally harmless when diluted in water, if not healthy. You will need to use 36% food grade Hydrogen Peroxide, which you can buy (or order) in some of the local pharmacies for some 225 baht per liter. I normally add between 0.5 to 1 DL (deciliter, or a small cup) when cleaning filter in the storage tank. However, when handling it undiluted, be aware that it’s very corrosive (also used as torpedo and rocket fuel). Hydrogen Peroxide can also be used instead of chlorine or salt in pools, there is an American company selling complete systems, based on NASA’s directives, for that purpose.

Edited August 9, 2015 by khunPer

[Keesters]

You should not need anything more than normal crap to keep a septic system working - the issue is cleaners/bleach getting into them and killing the bacteria. Just feed it the good stuff, without the cleaners, and it should be fine.

And never clean the bowl....

[peter267]

Very generally it is said a groundwater source (well for domestic water) should be 20m away from an open septic tank and much preferred to be up slope from any septic tank. A Thai sealed septic tank properly installed - the right capacity for usage - effectively treats the raw sewage - develops bacteria to basically eat the s**t and the what comes off the top is near clean water.

The other thing that effects polution is the nature of the sub soil the ground water is stored and flows in if fine sand flow is slow and filtration high as opposed to coarse gravel or rock fissures where filtration is limited and flow may be fast.

This does or give and shallow water source a clean bill of health only way to know is testing and the ability to keep on testing - water quality could be better or worse at end of rainy season when groundwater recharged that when levels are low at end of dry season.

Recommendations above on chlorination are good advice it will knock out the harmful bugs if present - done in the open well it will give contact time - 20 minutes to kill the bugs and then will evaporate off. Target chlorination should be 10 parts per million if you calculated the volume of your stored well water and worked out how many bottles of bleach a 1/2% chlorine content you would need to add - or maybe use a swimming pool chlorine test kit - or it is said if you take a glass of treated water fresh from the treated source and you just detect the smell of chlorine on the nose you have exceeded 10 parts per million.

One thing done to public wells in locations of high use and risk of contamination - refugee camps/post disaster camp - is to hang slow release chlorine tablets in a plastic screen type basket - maybe toilet tablets used in cisterns would achieve a constant dose of 10ppm.

Good to introduce a sand filter or filtration of some kind to take out the very small particulate - A back washing swimming pool style is self sustaining - I am not sure I believe in the adequacy of in line filtration as sold in thai "do it yourself" shops Limited capacity to handle particulate by their small size and without constant testing no idea how long they work or work at all.

Final advice don't over work the well - don't pump large volume in short time - best to pump slowly over long time - this in effect means introduce surface storage and a pressure pump to serve the house - deal with peak morning & evening toilet & wash times and then let the tank replenish at a slow fill rate. This means a small discharge well pump. This last step may seem a step too far - its about slowing the groundwater flow and allowing the natural underground filtration and bacteria to do the 'work of nature' .

[ksamuiguy]

The biggest problem we find is well contamination, when we get rain , especially heavy rain the septic tank overflows and enters the well.

It is imperative that well pipes, rings be high enough to prevent rain water,flood water from entering the well.

All well heads should be sealed to prevent external water or or other contaminants from entering the well, a 30 cm PVC extension can prevent a lot of problems.

Please also remember when you well was dug, hopefully a flow test was performed. If you exceed the recommended flow of the well most likely your well will collapse

, especially in times of no rain. Everyone wants to Open the valve all the way, hopefully it was set to limit the water flow from your well to what is rated at.

Better to have continual water than no water at all.

[Nirvana]

I live at Samui and has an old-fashioned well; close to beach, so not deep, about 8 meters. The water by the beach at Samui is often little orange or red-colored due to ocher or rust. Furthermore there are septic tanks and other drain tanks, from for example kitchens, in the neighborhood – including my own tanks, that I should know the condition of – so bacteria is a question for concern. Unfortunately we do not have public water available in my area.

If it can be any help for you, I will share what I use. I have penned a simple diagram to supplement the text.

Worst fear is the E-coli from septic tanks; however a real well working septic – that’s better not to empty but keep going with the bacteria culture – should not lead much out, said to clean 80+%, but you never know about Thai neighbors with ring-tanks only. I read that E-coli bacteria normally clump into larger clusters, and many aid organizations says that just a simple piece of cloth can clean water in disaster areas; so a mechanical filter should be able to reduce the majority, if not remove all.

I use a pressure sand-filer and two small pre- and post-filters. The sand filter is just filled with normal pool-filter sand, and that works fine. The post-filer is 0.3-micron ceramic filter that is supposed to remove the majority of bacteria (some manufacturers claims more than 99%). The pre-filter is supposed to remove larger particles than the sand, i.e. a 5 or 10 micron filter, but real-life-use has shown that also a 0.3-micron ceramic filter works better here, and keep the sand-filter in a condition, where backwash is not need every week or two, which saves water. The ceramic filters are in clear plastic filter houses, so easy to see when they get dirty, and they are very easy to clean and can last for long time, if taken care of. I normally clean ceramic pre-filter once a week, and something like ever two-month I backwash the sand filter and clean the post-filter, which is actually hardly dirty. The filters also remove most of the reddish color.

Remember that the well gets air; the local well-experts says either an open top, or just flush some water straight from the pump back into the well from the top, so it get mixed with air, some 10-15 minutes daily – otherwise the water can obtain bad smell. Experience may show what you need for your well.

Legionella bacteria can be a risk in water tanks where the temperature is between 20 and 45 degree Celsius (the bacteria die at temperatures over 50 centigrade). In my storage tank I have installed a small submerged pump, 80-120 watt, that circulate the water through a ceramic filter and an UV-lamp – timer-controlled, so the UV only burns some 4 hours a day – and at the exit hose/pipe I mounted an end-piece from a tiny aquarium pump to mix air into the water. Air both reduces bacteria and algae, and removes any bad smell; the principle with the water steps in waterworks. The cost of running an approximately 100W pump is about 12 baht a day, but the pump could be timer controlled.

The only real costly item in the set-up is the pressure sand filter, which comes in both stainless steel and fiber (I would today prefer the latter), a 50 liter steel-pressure-filter will cost in the area around 20,000 baht; however, you may not need a sand filter, if your water is otherwise clean. The house for a small filter costs about 800 baht (if my memory serves me right) and a ceramic filter is about 500 baht. A submerged 80W pump is around 2,000 baht and a UV-lamp (house & lamp) about 4,500 baht (maybe less, depending of the size of lamp).

If you wish to add anything to clean water and reduce bacteria, a very good alternative to chlorine is Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2); that has within the last decade been mandatory in a number of country’s waterworks (including some US states), instead of chlorine and/or pumping air into the water. Hydrogen Peroxide is just water with an extra Oxygen atom, which is released so just water and oxygen (2xH2O + O2); the method is used by NASA to clean water in space (urine can become drinking water). Hydrogen Peroxide is totally harmless when diluted in water, if not healthy. You will need to use 36% food grade Hydrogen Peroxide, which you can buy (or order) in some of the local pharmacies for some 225 baht per liter. I normally add between 0.5 to 1 DL (deciliter, or a small cup) when cleaning filter in the storage tank. However, when handling it undiluted, be aware that it’s very corrosive (also used as torpedo and rocket fuel). Hydrogen Peroxide can also be used instead of chlorine or salt in pools, there is an American company selling complete systems, based on NASA’s directives, for that purpose.

A very interesting topic overall and learned alot. Thanks for time and effort, maybe some time we need some consultation...