well

[timefore]

Anyone know the going rate (roughly) for drilling and commissioning a well these days?

[solic200]

I would think around £3000 depending on the depth. If you have a well dug I have a couple of hardly used pumps for sale ideal for the job. A chap called Fahri is quite good for a quote and not pushy his number is 0 (542) 850 67 10.

[JBA]

Before commencing a well you need to get a licence - not always granted and certainly not if there is another well within 80 metres. You also need to find a reliable diviner to see if there is water on your land.....and where it is.

All that settled you have a choice of a machine drilled well or hand dug.

Machine drilled will be about 8 - 10 metres below the level at which water is found to provide a reservoir and it will be lined with concrete sleeves. That is the cheap option but there is little you can do if the water dries up or if it silts up because they are so narrow.

A hand dug well is much more expensive but it has a good diameter, is properly shored and they will excavate a cave at the bottom to act as a reservoir. It will not silt up and it is possible to drill into the sides in many places to increase the water flow.

My machine drilled well was 8 years ago so what I paid (about 200tl per metre + 1500tl for pump, cabling and pipework) is no longer current.

[Groucho]

Is this the time to be thinking of sinking wells?

If water is coming from Turkey it may prove an expense too far.... i.e. in times past having a well would add value to a property but I'm not so sure that this will be the position going forward. you need to do your sums - it costs quite a lot in maintenance and energy terms to keep a well fully functioning and the water even then may not be potable.

Proximity of other people soak-aways, cesspits, graveyards any industrial facility higher up the water table - all need to be borne in mind.

Your position vis-a-vis the coast is also very relevant... wells too close to the sea tend to get ingress of salt water - not what you are looking for I'd guess.

Just finding water on your own land is not the end of it -just the start.

[Lottidotti]

Don't bother with a water diviner/ Dowser,there is no scientific evidence that it works.You have as much chance of finding water by guessing.
Non of the so called water deviners/downers have been able to find water under scientific scrutiny other than by chance.Save your money.

[mrsgee]

We had a well included in the property we bought 6 years ago. Cost £3,000. Worked ok for about a year but now wont pump the water, of which there is not very much anyway. Big waste of money, and I am not sure I want to throw good money after bad to try to get it working.

[trooper]

Frankly I think the whole business of drilling wells is nonsense and indefensible.

The water below the ground should not be accessed by individuals. Given the problems with water on the island (notwithdtanding the water coming from Turkey in due course) it is absurd that people can take water from under the ground by the means of a private well and then pour it down the drain if they wish. The idea that it can be used to wash cars (what is it about Cypriots and washing cars ?), washing down driveways etc etc is just nonsense.

The water resources are there for EVERYONE and it should not be possible to tap (sorry about that...) into the meagre resources and not have to account for its use is something that cannot be defended. How can it be right that having more money than others gives you greater access to life giving water?

Perhaps we should also look at the swimming pool situation too. It is as plain as a pikestaff that this island does not have the water resources for all these pools but no-one seems to give a damn.

It's time someone in authority got to grips with things, but I suspect with the Turkish supply on the horizon that is too much to ask.

[topten]

Before commencing a well you need to get a licence - not always granted and certainly not if there is another well within 80 metres. You also need to find a reliable diviner to see if there is water on your land.....and where it is.

All that settled you have a choice of a machine drilled well or hand dug.

Machine drilled will be about 8 - 10 metres below the level at which water is found to provide a reservoir and it will be lined with concrete sleeves. That is the cheap option but there is little you can do if the water dries up or if it silts up because they are so narrow.

A hand dug well is much more expensive but it has a good diameter, is properly shored and they will excavate a cave at the bottom to act as a reservoir. It will not silt up and it is possible to drill into the sides in many places to increase the water flow.

My machine drilled well was 8 years ago so what I paid (about 200tl per metre + 1500tl for pump, cabling and pipework) is no longer current.

Just going to pick you up on two things 1) Dug wells do silt up, a friend of mine had hers "desilted" twice in 8yrs
2) They do go to the bottom of machine dug wells to clear them of debris and such.

[sophie]

Agree 100% with Trooper re wells. However its well nigh impossible to try and explain to a locals about water tables etc. When I've tried, their eyes just glaze over and I'm told "we're not taking anyone elses water, it's my well, so it's my water". Car washes are a growth industry, lord only knows why. The first spot of dust on the paint work and is off to have the vehicle washed. Yesterday we went down South and I kid you not, there was a Lefkosa Belediye water tanker driving slowly up the road just before you hit the Metehan straight, with a bloke walking beside it, spraying the road. Clearly he had done this for the last 300yds or so and was going to continue until he had run out of water. Nuts!!

[Hippocampus]

Re cost of digging a well: If you have the room, just put in a few water tanks and get them filled as required by tanker. For £3000 you can get a life-times worth of tankers, without the hassle of having a well desilted, the pump packing up etc.

[Keithcaley]

Hmmm...

A couple of 5 ton plastic tanks would cost around £1,600 installed - or even more if you want them buried, or need to have a concrete hardstanding constructed.

At today's prices, the remaining £1,400 would buy you around 350 tankers of water, say 2,800 tons of water, or enough to fill those tanks 280 times.

With a large garden to water, at the height of the summer, you could be filling those tanks every week, and a large pool plus domestic consumption (if you are not on the mains supply) could easily take it to 3 times every 2 weeks.

So, just for the 13 weeks of Summer, you are looking at 20 'fills', and off season, perhaps another 10 fills would cover the rest of the year.

I reckon that you would run out of cash before 10 years had elapsed, and that's without inflation, poor exchange rates, or fiscal lag. I suppose that you might be able to stretch it a little further by keeping the diminishing balance in a high-interest Bank Account, but I do hope that my Life Expectancy is better than that!