Back in May of 2010, we decided that it was time to drill a bore well on the plot. We hired a bore well chap who showed up with another chap who had coconuts and some copper wire thingies. He walked around the plot, dropped a coconut in two places, pointed the copper at them and told us where to dig.
The bore well chap we hired turned out to be a giant flake who kept postponing the work. So we hired another chap. By this time, it was about the third week of June. We started drilling, and I developed a 104 fever that day. They next day I was in hospital with 106. Yay. Anyhoo, we drilled down to 890 feet and got half an inch of water at 270 feet. I'm not sure what the 1/2 inch measures, I think it is somehow a measure of how quickly the column will fill up again. I've been told that it is enough water to run a house on.
On Saturday, the 2nd of April, 2011, we installed the pump. We went with a 3 HP 40 stage pump, 800 feet down. This means that, when full, we will have a column of water 530 feet high and 6 inches in diameter. This is about 2,900 litres of water.
The installation was interesting. They first tied one end of the 800 foot piping to an auto who drove up the road and let it uncoil.
And dropped it down the well. That reminds me, I need a schedule a prostrate exam...
The weight of the pump basically dragged the piping down. They had to just control the descent. Every once in a while they'd stop and tape the electric cable to the pipe.
And we got water! Yay. We weren't entirely sure if there would be water because of the abuse the water table in Bangalore has suffered. The next step is putting in a timer and sensor to make sure the pump doesn't run when the column has been drained...
This is what the site looked like on that day.
The water situation in Bangalore is precarious and is only going to get worse. So we are going to set up sumps for storing rain water as well as a decentralized wastewater treatment system (DEWATS) for processing all our waste which will be fed to the garden.
The site is pretty rocky, and we've discovered three veins of rock running through it under the surface. Luckily, one is a soft rock that crumbles quite easily.
Here's Ravi, he's the site engineer. This is going to be under the verandah and we're hoping to get about 27 KL of storage here. We're going to dig deeper here as well. To the right of the picture, you can see the soft rock that's being dug up. Just above his head is the hard granite. We're going to bring in some compressor tools and dig up some of that so we can expand the sump to below the driveway (top right of the picture.)
We're also going to put another sump in the north east corner under the utility area. That pile near the white wall is going to go away and the hole will become deeper.
This is our architect documenting the site with his own camera.
Once the sumps have been excavated, the next step is starting the foundation work. At which point we will have to say goodbye to one of the trees thats on the site. It's on the edge of the foundation and will be removed in a week or so. You can see that half its root structure has already been chopped off. Goodbye tree.
The bore well chap we hired turned out to be a giant flake who kept postponing the work. So we hired another chap. By this time, it was about the third week of June. We started drilling, and I developed a 104 fever that day. They next day I was in hospital with 106. Yay. Anyhoo, we drilled down to 890 feet and got half an inch of water at 270 feet. I'm not sure what the 1/2 inch measures, I think it is somehow a measure of how quickly the column will fill up again. I've been told that it is enough water to run a house on.
On Saturday, the 2nd of April, 2011, we installed the pump. We went with a 3 HP 40 stage pump, 800 feet down. This means that, when full, we will have a column of water 530 feet high and 6 inches in diameter. This is about 2,900 litres of water.
The installation was interesting. They first tied one end of the 800 foot piping to an auto who drove up the road and let it uncoil.
Then they attached this end to the pump (the long metalic thing)...
The weight of the pump basically dragged the piping down. They had to just control the descent. Every once in a while they'd stop and tape the electric cable to the pipe.
And we got water! Yay. We weren't entirely sure if there would be water because of the abuse the water table in Bangalore has suffered. The next step is putting in a timer and sensor to make sure the pump doesn't run when the column has been drained...
The water situation in Bangalore is precarious and is only going to get worse. So we are going to set up sumps for storing rain water as well as a decentralized wastewater treatment system (DEWATS) for processing all our waste which will be fed to the garden.
The site is pretty rocky, and we've discovered three veins of rock running through it under the surface. Luckily, one is a soft rock that crumbles quite easily.
This is our architect documenting the site with his own camera.
Once the sumps have been excavated, the next step is starting the foundation work. At which point we will have to say goodbye to one of the trees thats on the site. It's on the edge of the foundation and will be removed in a week or so. You can see that half its root structure has already been chopped off. Goodbye tree.
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