Water ... Sanitation... Electricity ... Roads
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
A SPRING is simply an opening where water flows
out of the ground. It may be located at the bottom
of a pond or lake. If you have a good spring near
your house you may be saved the expense of
digging a well. And if the spring is located on a high
enough level you may be able to use a gravity
system instead of a pump.
RELATED CONTENT
A RAM is really a sort of pump but it requires no
electricity or gasoline and has no moving parts and is
completely automatic. The water virtually pumps itself.
There must be at least a 20 inch fall of water between the
source and the ram. Under these conditions the ram will
pump water to a much higher level, as high as 20 feet.
A DUG WELL is the kind that is actually dug with hand digging tools. This
is the old fashioned type of well you see on many farms today. Wells are
not dug by hand so often nowadays as they used to be because it is
frequently easier to get a well driven or drilled. Another reason is that
the dug well is more easily contaminated by seepage through the walls or from
above. On the other hand, this type of well if properly constructed can be kept
entirely pure and provide plentiful quantities of water for generations.
If yours thinking of digging a well yourself, you'll
want to learn more about
this kind of well.
A DRIVEN WELL is made by driving into the ground a simple pipe fitted
with a well point. It may be either a doep or shallow well. depending on how
deep you go to get a satisfactory flow of water.
If your soil is suitable for this type of well
it is something worth investigating for it usually costs less than drilling
a well or digging one. It is not generally considered as reliable as an
Artesian well
(which produces a steady flow of water),. but in some sections it is quite satisfactory.
You need a good sized storage tank and you should
know what to do if the well points become clogged.
A DRILLED WELL is made by drilling a hole into the ground 4 to 8 inches
in diameter with special well-drilling equipment. The upper part of this well
is lined with a steel casing which protects it from contamination. If you think
you will have to go down deep to get water, you should learn more about
drilled wells. Also you will need to investigate deep and shallow well
pumps. The cost of a shallow well pump is much less and can be used with
a good Artesian well when you don't have to pump water up from over 22
feet.
Page: 1 |
2 |
3 |
Next >>
