We’ve had a drought here in Koh Samui since the end of May that resulted in our mains water being restricted to being switched on for just 3 hours, 2 days a week.
Admittedly, it isn’t at a level where we needed Bob Geldof, but for our corner of the world and its cossetted ex-pat community, the browning fairways on the island's only golf course were a major cause for concern.
The wife was also not happy, she hates not having water…
Generally, many of the properties on the island are built on hillsides and have deep wells drilled during construction and have quite been affected as badly as the people connected to the mains water but even the wealthy ex-pats in the hills in their swanky villas have been having to buy water in as the ground water level dropped and the wells began to run dry.
Water on the island is supplied by two reservoirs that are supplemented by a pipeline from the mainland which on its own delivers 16000cubic meters a day, far from the island’s average daily requirement of 34000 cubic meters per day.
To mitigate any shortages or outages, as well as the year-round poor pressure, we use a 1500 litre tank and pump to get water around the house at a decent pressure for showers and baths which we also had to pay to be filled a number of times as it wasn’t filling as fast as we used it despite our best conservation efforts.
The in-laws next door, however, have a regular well, just 10 metres deep as we are so close to sea level here and in times of dire emergency, we could always pop round theirs for a shower and shit if needed.
Anyway, I noticed that down at the back of the land, there were two dirty old concrete rings sticking out of the ground, surrounded by foliage and covered by broken roofing panels. I asked the wife about it who had no idea they were there (as she never does any gardening or risks the long grass and scrub out back) who in turn asked her mum. It transpired it was an old well that was sunk by Fon’s grandfather in the 1960s when the land was being farmed but no water had been taken from it since. Back in the day, it would have been a bucket on a rope but these days, a water pipe is run down the inside walls with a filter on the bottom and a pump on the top.
I took of the broken roofing panels and peered down into the darkness and by torchlight could see a shimmer of dirty water. This could be a result, but how to bring it back into service?
I cant imagine what sort of idiot foreigner would wear sliders with socks...
The answer was to firstly get it cleaned out, and to do that, you needed a well cleaning team. No, I never knew such people existed either. I imagined a truck with hoses and pressure washers and pumps and blokes in full hazmat suits but what I actually got was two very old Burmese blokes wearing worn out shorts and vests in an ancient and battered Toyota Hi-Ace with some buckets attached to thin rope, a thick knotted rope, an old pump and a scrubbing brush. You’d think my mind would have synced into the Thai psyche after 15 years, but seemingly not!
As they started to drop tie the thick knotted rope to a nearby tree and dangle it down the well, it dawned on me they were actually going to climb down. Much as that would have made for some great pictures, I quickly ran to get my long ladder, hoping it was long enough and the mud at the bottom wasn’t too deep. Luckily, they reached as it turned out the well was only 6m deep and after a frantic thirty-minute session of pumping out as much of the dirty water out as possible, finally climbed down to test the depth.
After that, with water up to his knees, he began pulling out bucket after bucket of dead leaves and shitty black water, the guy at the top pulling the bucket up on a rope as black rain cascaded down on the poor fella below.
It wasn’t long though before the water began to clear, and as time went on, there were no more dead leaves left, only sand as he dredged the bottom of the pit, but still the buckets kept coming and the sand was deposited around the closest tree.
All the leaves are out but the bottom is completely silted up with sand so time to pump out again and then go back down with a bucket to dig out the sand.
Then things took a turn for the weird as the guy at the top pulled out a tin cup and started sampling the water in each bucket. Between trying not to wretch, I studied his face each time he took a sip before spitting it out. He did say something but it was in Thai so I hadn’t got a clue but gradually, bucket by bucket and sip by sip, he slowly and obviously became more satisfied with the taste before finally, shouting down to the poor guy at the bottom who began his ascension back into the light.
His time in the sunlight light didn’t last long though as after a quick douse from the pumped out clean water, he was back down the ladder with the scrubbing brush .
As you can see in the photos, a couple of the rings had been displaced when we’d recently done a little filling and there was a chuck of concrete missing out of another so then they set to work straightening up the rings and filling the gaps.
The wife was on a mission, now. All that was needed now was a well-head pump, and electric supply and a pipe to carry the water to the tank.
“I know, let’s get another tank just in case.” She exclaimed with a glee that could only come with knowledge you’d never have an issue flushing away a log again.
A new tank was ordered and arrived the next day and was quickly installed. That’s 3000 litres.
A new pump was ordered but was out of stock so we were going to have to wait a couple of weeks. No matter, we could carry on with the trucks until then. Trunking for the electric and water pipes arrived, then so did the rain…
We’ve barely had a dry day since the middle of September. The water pump arrived but it was too wet to finish the job. The mains water went to two full days a week. Then four, and now its on full time. My tanks remain full and the reservoirs are filling and the famous Samui waterfalls are flowing again.
Our bank balance, however, may take a little more time to bounce back…
For the well cleaning, new tank, new pump and associated not yet fitted pipework etc, ฿28,000 (£630, $800)…
A full 1000 litres delivery, ฿400 (£10, $13)…
Our usual monthly water bill is around ฿200 (£5, $7)...
We didn't even discover any secret trap doors, dead bodies or hidden treasure down there.