Drilling a water well/ borehole in Chiang Rai. Need info.

[canuckamuck]

We have decided that since we ran out of water last year, things would be better if we had our own supply. No one up here has done it though, so I don't know how much it will cost, how far to drill, or who to call. I assume our water table here is pretty high considering everyone here gets their water from spring fed streams.

Anyone here got any experience. We are up in the mountains not far from Doi Chang

[DonaldBattles]

Go to the plumbing stores in town and ask them if they know a driller. These guys have all kinds of things in their contract to protect themselves. Prices will range from 180k to 60k. If they hit rocks you have to pay. You buy them pump and pipes and make them install in a package price. Buy only USA or European pumps. You will pay around 30-40k for the pump. Be very careful in choosing a driller or you can get screwed badly. Also, check with neighbors and asked them for their advice and help you monitor the drilling.

[canuckamuck]

Go to the plumbing stores in town and ask them if they know a driller. These guys have all kinds of things in their contract to protect themselves. Prices will range from 180k to 60k. If they hit rocks you have to pay. You buy them pump and pipes and make them install in a package price. Buy only USA or European pumps. You will pay around 30-40k for the pump. Be very careful in choosing a driller or you can get screwed badly. Also, check with neighbors and asked them for their advice and help you monitor the drilling.

Thanks Donald, that's a start. but I can't ask the neighbors because no one here has done it.

I really do think we could away with a very shallow well. There are springs everywhere. Well there were until this year.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

I dont have experience in that area, but would advise you to contact the Agricultural guys in your area they will know about the potential of boreholes in the mountains. They have specialists that maybe able to look at their geological maps to see if its feasable. Remember always to drill well past the point at which you get water. This will serve as a sump to pump from and sometimes the water table decrease after pumping for a while. Good luck.

[dasboot]

We live close to Doi Tung,the cost for the water drill was 1500 Baht,the water table was roughly 3 meters down but they drilled to 4 meters,the drill consisted of several lengths if pipe with a large water pump,as the water was pumped through the pipe it cut or washed the soil/clay away,two guys help on to it,one with a big pair of stilsons to rotate it back and forth.

My side of the road,the water is poor quality,heavy in iron which settles out when left standing,the water flows very slowly through the substrate here as well,sometimes the pump would run dry,not far away a completely different story,endless supply of clean water,nearly everyone in the soi has there own bore hole because of the water shortage early this year. My neighbor eventually tried three different positions around his land,all with same story,he gave up trying.

[RBOP]

Depending on depth you may need a permit from DMR (Department of Mines and Resourses) or at least permission from the Poo Yai Baan / Tetsabaan.

[Jedsada3]

As in every civilized country, taking water out of the ground is very restricted and is regulated by law.

As foreigner, you would get the highest punishment if you have no permission and they catch you.

I would forget it and for a part of the money you would spend for drill a hole I would buy a tank big enough to "survive" a week or two if there is no more water supply at all and a pump to feed your house.

There are already many topics about water tanks on this forum.

[canuckamuck]

As in every civilized country, taking water out of the ground is very restricted and is regulated by law.

As foreigner, you would get the highest punishment if you have no permission and they catch you.

I would forget it and for a part of the money you would spend for drill a hole I would buy a tank big enough to "survive" a week or two if there is no more water supply at all and a pump to feed your house.

There are already many topics about water tanks on this forum.

I am confident you are incorrect. There are many foreigners with boreholes in Thailand. And my wife can get any kind of permission she needs. We weren't asking how to get away with stealing water.

I already have 3000+ liters of storage for house water. This year we ran out for 2 months, had to pump water up from the river.

[sceadugenga]

It depends where the water is being taken from, most countries place severe restrictions on the use of artesian basins which are often thousands of feet down, but subsurface water is another matter, most people only use this type of bore for the garden where most it goes straight back into the system anyway.

Be careful of what you use it for, everything that goes into the ground locally... sewage, agricultural chemicals etc ends up in it.

We have a bore here, put in before my time, and the pump is long gone.

I was told the water table had dropped so much rendering the bore useless.

[Stevemercer]

We have a couple of bores, but live in Isan. One is 5 m deep (2 inch diameter), with a surface pump, and cost 12,000 Baht for everything. The other is 50 m deep (4 inch diameter), with a submerged pump, and cost 25,000 Baht for everything (10,000 Baht for the bore hole, 10,000 Baht for the submerged pump and 5,000 Baht for PVC pipes, cabling etc). The former is for domestic use (about 5/10 litres per minute) and the later for commercial purposes (50 litres per minute). Both pumps run off pressure switches (e.g. only run when the tap is open).

Maybe your wife can ask around to find someone who does drilling. The trick is to find someone who knows what they are doing. They will have the experience to try the best location on your property and have an idea about the likely depth etc. You should be able to install a 5 metre hole for no more than 20,000 Baht including everything (surface pump etc). If you are just using the water for domestic purposes, a 2 or 3 inch bore should be fine. I doubt a deep well would be feasible in your location because of rock etc.

[Jedsada3]

I am confident you are incorrect. There are many foreigners with boreholes in Thailand.

There are many people driving car when they are drunk... it doesn't mean that it's allowed!

We weren't asking how to get away with stealing water.

Sorry if you understood my answer in that way. I never thought you wanted steal water. My answer was only to warn you and other readers about eventual bad consequences if drilling without permission.

[peter267]

We have decided that since we ran out of water last year, things would be better if we had our own supply. No one up here has done it though, so I don't know how much it will cost, how far to drill, or who to call. I assume our water table here is pretty high considering everyone here gets their water from spring fed streams.

Anyone here got any experience. We are up in the mountains not far from Doi Chang

A couple of things - a high spring line - and assuming you are in hills - indicates water is not passing lower underground but being pushed out sideways as it is an impermeable rock layer below. If water moving downwards as underlying rock is permeable you may have to drill deep. Good advice to check local plumbing stores for advice of a local driller.

You can get a lot of information from Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources - they should have a local office - and quite probably a hydrogeologist on staff who should be able to give you a good prognosis of locating water based on your geology. Maybe know of wells locally - indeed is public water supply nearby ever by borehole. They have a pretty extensive web site you could go here directly to see what geology you are sitting on http://www.dmr.go.th/main.php?filename=index___EN

​They are surely not ignorant of their resources under them.

Most Thai drillers working an local area they know drill on the basis of 'no water no pay' - however like this more likely to come up with a price based on what they think you can afford - hence getting a local recommendation first based on a value of work done previously.

I think the government have an active programme of 9000 emergency drought relief boreholes ingoing just now well drillers are busy.

[carlyai]

Keep trying. Most of the replies so far aren't in your area and or have not really done it.

I am not in your area but have 2 'boor dans' or bores into the aquifer.

The secret is not to believe what anyone says, unless you are standing there next to the bore they have had drilled that works. Then you can believe them.

Unfortunately even the great Thai farmers, who may know everything, seem to come up short with many things, and bores are one of them.

If you find a truck with a drilling rig on and he wants to put in a 3" casing, go for a 6" casing, as then you can get a decent sized submersible pump down there.

I went for the above ground Lucky Star jet pumps, only because I had one on the first bore and felt more confident putting in another pump of the same type, plus I learn a lot from the first installation, which I initially didn't do.

Probably submersible, quality pump and fittings is the way to go.

Use high grade pvc pipe and casing. The casing the bore people used for my bores was normal pvc pipe, which everyone says is Ok, but better to go for thicker higher grade.

In the past (not sure about your area), people completing their Dr degrees etc did lots of aquifier surveys in Thailand.

The surveys will all be there (if there are any) at the ampher office. I haven't actually got to the stage of going to the office to look at the aquifer surveys, but I have been informed by another thread on Thaivisa, that it's a good idea to take SWMBO and the village headman, because a falang asking for this info. probably won't get it.

So, as someone who has had bores sunk, and connected the plumbing and pumps, and who's bore pumps work, but i don't live in your area, I would say, take it easy and do not believe what the Thai's tell you, use big 6" holes and do the job right.

Thai's have been doing bores for ever, like my brother in law the brilliant hard working farmer.

He only ever drilled 3" bores until he knew, recently, about 6" bores, now it's only 6" bores that are any good.

If everyone drills 3" bores, then that's all they know, so everyone drills 3" bores.

[Randell]

Just my two cents worth I am not in your area either but totally concur with some of the replies so far

(We live close to Doi Tung,the cost for the water drill was 1500 Baht,the water table was roughly 3 meters down but they drilled to 4 meters,the drill consisted of several lengths if pipe with a large water pump,as the water was pumped through the pipe it cut or washed the soil/clay away,two guys help on to it,one with a big pair of stilsons to rotate it back and forth.

My side of the road,the water is poor quality,heavy in iron which settles out when left standing,the water flows very slowly through the substrate here as well,sometimes the pump would run dry,not far away a completely different story,endless supply of clean water,nearly everyone in the soi has there own bore hole because of the water shortage early this year. My neighbor eventually tried three different positions around his land,all with same story,he gave up trying.)dasboot

And with what( Calyai ) said in his post. I have two bores one on a rice plot and one in my garden plot. There were done according to Das Boot's quite simple and 3 in. the one in the garden still good but harsh water heavy minerals. A harvester ran over the rice plot pipe totally fragmenting the whole thing rendering it useless. it by the way was normal walled pvc blue pipe. On both we hit water at 3 meters and they went down to 5. the cost 5 years ago was 20,000 for the work .pipe included I bought the pumps.

I know this is not really relevant to your location. But friends of mine are on a quite a big hill side but still were able to get water without drilling into rock.

So good luck. Maybe someone will chime in with some location relevant info for you. All the best and as someone has already said take your time and get it done right once.

Randell

[connda]

Good topic and currently pretty relevant considering the dought-like conditions. I've been thinking along the same lines. Like most villagers, we have a hand dug well about 3 meters deep. Many of the local wells when dry this year, so I'm at least entertaining the idea of dropping a bore hole deeper than the local wells.

I'd be interested in what you eventually decide to do and how you accomplish it. I'm in a mountain valley close to Doi Khun Tan.

[Rotweiler]

What total nonsense! Drilling for a household well - even for a community well - is NOT controlled nor forbidden.

For the information of the original poster, check with anyone in the area with a well and measure the depth of all you can find. Then add 5 metres and you should never run out. Ours dried up in April - our neighbours was 4metres deeper and didn't dry up at all.

As in every civilized country, taking water out of the ground is very restricted and is regulated by law.

As foreigner, you would get the highest punishment if you have no permission and they catch you.

I would forget it and for a part of the money you would spend for drill a hole I would buy a tank big enough to "survive" a week or two if there is no more water supply at all and a pump to feed your house.

There are already many topics about water tanks on this forum.

[tomyumchai]

As in every civilized country, taking water out of the ground is very restricted and is regulated by law.

As foreigner, you would get the highest punishment if you have no permission and they catch you.

I would forget it and for a part of the money you would spend for drill a hole I would buy a tank big enough to "survive" a week or two if there is no more water supply at all and a pump to feed your house.

There are already many topics about water tanks on this forum.

I am confident you are incorrect. There are many foreigners with boreholes in Thailand. And my wife can get any kind of permission she needs. We weren't asking how to get away with stealing water.

I already have 3000+ liters of storage for house water. This year we ran out for 2 months, had to pump water up from the river.

im sat with people from the tetsaban now and just asked them about the possibility of me being prosecuted when we sink our well. the translation came back something like "why farang talk so much shit"?

[Stevemercer]

• There's no fear or prosecution or anyone worrying about what you do on your property here in Thailand. Sheet, most of us are happy to get away from that sort of petty regulations in the western world. No Thai person would ask for 'permission'. Just do it. If there is a problem a few years down the track a few thousand baht will fix it.

[bazza40]

Wouldn't it be simpler and less expensive to add another 5000 - 10,000 litres to the rainwater storage? Not to mention cleaner water supply - sometimes aquifers can be grossly polluted.

[canuckamuck]

Wouldn't it be simpler and less expensive to add another 5000 - 10,000 litres to the rainwater storage? Not to mention cleaner water supply - sometimes aquifers can be grossly polluted.

10,000 liters wouldn't get us through 2 months of no water, there is a lot of people here and we can use more than a 1000 a day just in household stuff. Add to that we have a fish farm. Normally they get water straight from a stream via 600 meters of pipe, but this year that quit too. A borehole would make it so I am not spending so much time pumping from the river.

This is the first year anyone can remember the water running out. The start to this year's rainy season is wimpy and the streams are barely a trickle yet. We can't even flood the rice paddy. That's never happened before.

I am thinking it is very possible we will be out again next dry season and maybe earlier and longer. I would be stupid not to investigate drilling a water well. in fact I think I need 2.

[kartman]

Wells over a certain depth need a license renewable every 2 years and initial one the water has to be tested and certified for quality if you miss the renewable date you have to go through that process again, the local water authority does do spot checks maybe relying on information gained (driller having two bites of the cake?)

[Big Gary]

My house on Koh Chang is supplied from a spring about 700 meters from the house and is up the side of a Hill/Mountain. My local workers went up there and it took about 5 days to dig out a small reseviour about 2 meters deep and 3 meters wide with a lid right below where the fresh spring water came out of the hill. They fitted a 3" pipe and piped it down( Gravity Feed) to my 2X 500 gallon tanks and use Ball Cocks to regulate the flow. We use a small pump to send the water in the house. Permanent crystal clear spring water. So far never run dry.

[Chowna]

I had a couple of bored wells done at my farm in Isaan,Both were 1800baht for the drilling,one was 16meters the other was 18 meters,I cannot remember exactly but I paid around 5000baht each for electric pumps they work fine and the water is very strong I use it on my Lime trees etc when the season dries out a bit using 2inch flexi hose,The water is crystal clean at my farm,But I had a well drilled at my house a few years before and there was a lot of sand in the water so I dont use it only when the village water goes down here,I also keep Pla Duc and Plasawai and Pla Mor so regularly do water changes.Regards Derek

[sceadugenga]

Welcome to the forum Chowna....