Supply, Installations & Protection:
In Ireland most of us are used to having a water supply piped to us from some kind of organised scheme, but this is only a very recent thing and there are still many people living in rural areas who have to find their own supplies.
If you are going to produce your own food then you need to acquire as many different sources of this precious resource as possible, because if one source becomes unavailable for any reason then you will have the other sources as back up. This is extremely important because if you lost your water supply for even one day you could start to lose your fruit/vegetable crops in a hot summer or your animals at anytime of the year. You maybe able to live on bottles of pop/minerals and cans of beer for a day or two, your animals will not be able to do this and if you have a lot of larger animals then you will be in real trouble.
Water Wells:
There are 2 main types of water well you can install on your premises, a deep bore drilled type water well and a surface digging machine dug water well.
The Deep Bore Well:
This type of well is a drilled well which is mostly hundreds of feet deep protectively lined with steel or plastic to stop rubble from from the sides falling into it, and a deep bore pump is then lowered to near the bottom and pumps water up to the surface. This type of well has to be a very deep well because the reservoir of water in it, is only as 6" to 8" in diameter so the amount of water per metre is only a few gallon. A bath may use 20 gallons or more so the water level in this well has to be many metres deep to form a descent reservoir and needs to be replenished from a good deep underground source.
The advantages of this type of well are that the water is usually clean and well filtered but can still be mineral contaminated so may need further treatment (specialised filtration), and in dry spells the water is usually plentiful because of the depth of the well.
The disadvantages are that it is extremely expensive to drill by not so common specialist well drillers and the pump and other associated equipment (pressure tanks) is also very expensive, and requires a good electricity supply. Costs are usually in excess of 4000.00 euro and you usually have to wait for drilling rigs to be in your area, as they require a few wells in your area from other customers as they aren't interested in "one offs".
The Machine Dug Surface Well:
This type of well can be done by anyone with a standard construction type digging machine, in fact you can hire one yourself from hire shops if you have experience on using them. The well can go down to a depth of around 15ft which is the approximate maximum depth that a machine can dig down to, and the diameter is as large as you require so the reservoir of water can be quite plentiful. It is usually a large diameter concrete pipe of 3ft or more sitting on and surrounded by installed cleaned gravel which allows the water from the underground spring to filter through and fill up the concrete liner pipe. The water is then pumped usually from a surface pump in a near by purpose built pump house. Care must be taken when siteing this well that there isn't a chance that the supply could receive contamination from roads or septic tank and animals
The advantages of this type of well are that it could be installed for less than 1000.00 euro depending on how deep and how much work you may be able to complete yourself. Associated equipment costs can also be far less than deep bore type water wells. If there is no electric supply for any reason the water can be obtained manually by a hand pump or even bucket and rope.
The disadvantages of this type of well are that in dry spells the water level can drop or even be exhausted. The filtration of the natural water may not be good enough to remove surface contaminates such as organic matter from vegetation and animals so the water may have a high bacteria content, but further filtration can rectify this problem.
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Springs And Streams:
If you are lucky enough to have a spring or stream on your property this water can be harnessed for your food production and for your home use. There will be very little or even no natural filtration of this water and care should be taken on whether it could be contaminated from sources outside of your property. This could be a road run off or even a neighbours septic tank or animal housing discharge. If ever this is suspected then do not use this water for your household usage or animal and vegetable usage. If you are certain that this water is free from contamination then it can be easily and cheaply filtered to be used for your food production.
Rain Water Collection/Harvesting:
Rain water is free (until someone finds a way of taxing it) and should be collected for use in the garden, which it can be easily and cheaply with many collection and storage containers which are cheaply available. The simplest is to just catch the roof water from your house by diverting the down pipe in to a suitable container. This water is by no means clean, as it can be contaminated from many sources. Air pollution is one source depending where you live but rain water from roofs can get contaminated from insects, bird droppings and even the odd dead bird which may have fallen in to your guttering. The solids can be removed from the water with a simple filtration system which contains just sand and gravel, but any bacterial content would require further filtration and treatment from the correct filtration and purification systems.
One thing to remember is that the longer your untreated harvested rainwater is stored in your tank/barrel, the more chances are that any bacteria in the water will start to grow. This will then clog filters and pipework and the water could even stagnate making it basically useless except for outside vegetable production. This water couldn't be used in your house or used for livestock. So the best thing is to get it filtered and treated as soon as possible.
Also remember that if you intend to use this water for any kind of drinking water or for livestock, the storage vessels and pipework should be made of materials which will not leech toxins into the water. Plastic containers should be "potable water" grade plastic purpose made for drinking water (no old plastic fuel tanks) and any plastic water pipe also needs to be of drinking water grade. Do not use any lead piping. Very rare now but you never know.
Basic Water Filtration:
A simple basic water filtration to remove solid matter only is a pipe of around 1 metre in length filled with sand. the water running through this ordinary cleaned builders sand will remove most of the solid matter from water. The diameter of the pipe depends on how large the outlet of your water supply into your sand filter is, so the diameter of your sand filter could be from 4" to 3ft. If your water supply is very fast then it will need to be slowed to a rate that it will filter through the sand in a way it isn't washing the sand away. Obviously the sand will need to be changed frequently and this depends on the volume of water passing through it but most filtered out solid matter will be in the top few inches of your sand.
The bottom of your pipe will need to be blocked off, if it is plastic drainage pipe you can get covers which push or screw on. Then a few inches up from the bottom drill some 1/2" or 15mm holes all the way around the pipe or one appropriate sized hole if you are going to connect an outlet on to it. Then fill the pipe with correct sized gravel that wont pass through the small outlet holes or outlet connection so the gravel is deep enough to be a few inches above these holes then put about 6 inches of smaller gravel like pea gravel on top. Then fill up with cleaned/washed sand, the finer the better, with a mixture of coarse sand mixed in, even sand from the beach if you are allowed to take any. If you have a fairly fast flow of water then lower the level of the sand down about an inch or two from the top so the water doesn't keep flowing over the top before in sinks through the sand. If the water flow is too fast it will wash the sand away so the flow will need to be restricted.
The filtered water could be used for your toilet but it will not be clean enough for washing food, bathing or drinking because it could still contain harmful bacteria which will require further filtration.
There are further filtration devices you can purchase which claim to kill bacteria without using chemicals. But how do you know if they are working all of the time unless you test all the water before drinking.
Water Purification:
Purifying water so it is safe to drink has always been a problem so the usual way is to use a hammer blow in the form of chlorine. Chlorine does purify the water but it is also a deadly poison that has been used in chemical warfare right through from World War 1 to the 1980's in Iraq.
One way of purifying water with chlorine is to filter out the solids then bubble chlorine gas through the water so it kills any bacteria but residues of the chlorine gas can still be present in the water when then consumed, but these are supposed to be below harmful levels although it is said that chlorine can react with other elements that may be present in the water and these can be harmful. Saying that chlorine treated water has been drank for many years and besides the odd accident from human error, there hasn't been that many health scares up to yet.
The only easy answer is to remove particles in the water, then filter minerals and other diluted substances out of the water and then boil any drinking water to kill bacteria.
Treating water with chlorine at low levels wouldn't be so bad but then for some reason they add another deadly toxin called fluoride for some unknown reason (to fight tooth decay?).
Another way of purifying water is to use ultra violet light and you can buy or even make your own ultra violet light purification system. An ultra violet filtration system is just a highly polished (mirror finish) tube housing a specialist type ultra violet bulb where the water pass over and around the bulb. The ultra violet rays pass through the water and reflect back and through the water again off the sides of the polished tube. This bombards/blasts any bacteria or viruses with ultra violet rays which kill them. The higher the flow of water needed the longer the tube/ultra violet bulb and obviously the bulb may be more powerful.
A water treatment system filtered through sand then further filtered through a specialised filter to remove chemicals and minerals and then purified with a recognised safe ultra violet system may provide you with safe water with out the use of chemicals. If you wanted to be sure your water was safe to drink, boiling it at or above boiling temperature for at least one minute is said to be enough and drinking water is the least amount of water used daily, so you may only need to boil less than a gallon per person per day.
For your own purified filtered drinking water you can purchase a 5 stage water filter which will treat your water with ultra violet rays to kill bacteria and viruses, and then there is also a 4 stage filtration system inside this water filter which finishes off with a "reversed osmosis" filter. This basically removes all contaminates of man made chemicals and metals from the water so you drink only almost pure but safe water.
The filters will need changing from 6 months to 18 months and are now quite cheap with your filtered water costing you approximately 1.00 euro - 1.50 euro per week. This is nothing compared to purchasing bottled water and your own filtered water is most likely cleaner. You will need a electricity supply for the ultra violet filter, but the electricity is only needed when the water is being used so could be supplied by generator/battery back up systems in the event of power outage.
Water Storage For Your Smallholding:
No matter what type of water supply you have it is always a good idea to store as much as you possibly can for emergencies like prolonged dry spells (you couldn't say drought in Ireland) or a disruption in electricity supply which could knock out mains water and your pumps would be ineffective. For outside water storage there are purpose made water storage tanks you can buy. These are the only ones you must use for fresh water storage because they would have been specifically designed and manufactured for this purpose so their construction components will not contaminate the water. These tanks are usually called "Potable Fresh Water Tanks" and should come with documentation saying that they are for storing water for human consumption.
Other containers which have been manufactured to contain things like fuel (oil tanks) or rain water must never be used for storing water to be used for human consumption as their manufactured components can leech out and dissolve in water and contaminate it so it could be toxic to animals and humans and also these contaminates could be absorbed by your vegetables if the water is used in growing them and then you will be contaminated when you consume them.
When storing water in water tanks this water must be changed frequently. It is better to have the storage tank as part of your everyday water supply so the water is being used and replenished in everyday use. Water when stored for a long time can become stale and even start to breed bacteria. Because of this further filtration or treatment may be needed if the water is to be used for human or animal consumption after the water leaves the tank and before it reaches the tap.
Installing Your Water Supply:
All water pipe work needs to be installed correctly and protected. When installing your water system outside you must use the correct heavy gauge plastic pipe work especially made for water installations and if going underground, it needs to be at a minimum depth of at least 18" and preferably deeper. At this depth it will be protected from the freezing cold temperatures that we may experience in this country, but if living in colder countries than Ireland it would need to be buried much deeper.
When installing this pipe work make a note and keep safe a detailed measurement from fences, boundaries and roads or other markers how far your pipe work installation is and where every underground joint is, so in the event of a problem you can find your underground system quite easily without causing any damage to the system or the land around it.
Do not if possible use the light gauge water pipe as this is false economy because the light gauge plastic pipe is thinner and no where near as strong and easily crushed or kinked by stones etc underground which can result in a higher chance of a burst pipe or restricted flow.
Also when installing your pipe work, Only do this once! and that means allow for the future and install the largest size pipe work you can afford so you will always have enough supply of water at any pressure, but usually a 3/4" pipe work supply is usually large enough for domestic/smallholder operations, any kind of farming operation will need to examine further how much water they are going to use. One important thing here though if you are connecting your supply on to for example a 1/2" pipe work system, then your system can only be 1/2" as well because the existing supply cant supply you anymore water than what a 1/2" pipe work system (or whatever it may be) can supply. So if you need more water then the supply system will need to be upgraded first.
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Protecting Your Water Supply:
Your water pipe work is eventually going to come to the surface to enter your house, or in a building/animal house, or in a field/vegetable patch/animal enclosure. This is where it needs protecting from the elements which is usually frost and extreme cold weather. If the pipe work is outside, then cover the whole of the pipe work up to the tap leaving the tap exposed for access with a concrete drainage pipe from well below the ground (at least 18") up to the tap (cut to size). This drainage pipe should be 8" minimum internal diameter and then fill this drainage pipe completely with any insulation that is waterproof insulation like expanding foam, but make sure you have at least 3" (preferably more) of insulation around the water pipe. Do not use fibreglass type insulation as it isn't waterproof and just goes wet and soggy then freezes in cold weather so is useless even if covered in plastic and taped up. If your pipe is connected to the wall and cant have a drainage pipe cover then cut the drainage pipe in half length ways so that you have two halves to use.
Then you must make a cover for the tap which can be a section of the same drainage pipe with at least 4" of insulation at the top allowing a space for your tap so then this cover can just be placed on top of the tap and fits perfectly. By using concrete it also protects against knocks and bangs and does away with wooden stake/post supports and is a once off permanent installation, and the only place it may freeze in extreme weather is the tap which can be easily accessed without dismantling or digging the upright pipe work out to repair. All of this insulation wont stop any freezing problems in extreme weather as outside the temperatures in some areas can get very very low, but it will help to protect your outside water at most of the low temperatures we experience in Ireland. You can insert a kerosene/oil Hurricane Lamp on very cold nights inside your covering which will last through the night (and for days) and give off enough heat to prevent the pipwork and tap from freezing, but make sure that nothing can come into contact with the lamp and catch fire or knock the lamp over.
If you have underground pipe work near the surface as in a polytunnel, then in freezing weather this pipe work must be drained of water so it cant freeze. Any pipe work in buildings must be lagged in at least 4" of waterproof insulation on top of the normal thin pipe foam insulation which is no where near thick enough.
Do not leave taps running because this just depletes the water supply and can actually freeze up in your waste pipe causing a flood inside the building as the water backs up. Leaving any tap running on a well or tank based system is not an option at any time as this will empty the well or storage tank.
Avoiding Contamination Of Your Water Supply:
Although it is a great benefit to have different water supplies for your use, it is not a good idea to link them together before or after they have been cleaned and filtered because one of them could contaminate the other. This is especially important if you are connected to a mains water supply so the way you plumb different water supplies on your property must be done in a way one cant mix with the other.
Another important "never to do" is to allow water hoses which are connected directly to your house supply, to hang down in to tanks, puddles, baths or troughs. Because if for any reason the water supply was to back siphon, it could suck the contents of what your hose is immerged in up the hose and through the pipe work and contaminate your whole water system with at best unfiltered water but at worst heavily contaminated water which could make you and your animals very ill. Back Siphoning is when the water pressure is reversed in your system for any reason which could be something as simple as someone turning a larger tap on at a lower level than you and where the tap is large enough to take all of the pressure and flow of the supplied water. It is very rare this could happen as correctly designed and installed systems would not be able to do this. This is one reason why a water supply to any tank should have a ball-cock fitted.
Where ever your water supply is or comes from it will need to be protected from contamination and this comes in many forms.
All and any tanks in buildings need to have fixed sealed covers because dust, insects, animals and their excrement can get into them with out you knowing. This is even more important in Ireland as for some reason water tanks can get installed without lids/covers and have to be purchased separately, so they end up being fitted in homes without a lid/cover and people do not know this because very few of them get in to the roof space to look. Sometimes you may go in to your attic and find that your domestic water tank has been situated under where bats roost and bats which are a very beneficial animal to humans which live in most houses and buildings, (bats eat billions of insects), but bat droppings in your water system is only your own fault if you do not put a lid on your water storage and header tanks.. In farm buildings the same happens together with bird droppings, dead mice and birds and insects falling into water tanks.
The worst is if ever a rat could ever get into your water tanks as they carry a viral disease called "Wiels disease" which is fatal if humans contract it, which they can from drinking or being in contact such as swimming or bathing with infected water. It usually comes from a rats urine. If you have any kind of water well, then these systems should be protected from rats and should be sealed so rats cant contaminate them. If you are collecting water from springs and streams then care and protection should be taken to protect from the possibility of rats contaminating these water sources. Rats are every where, they say you are never more than 10ft from a rat at any time and there are as many rats as people on the planet. You should always have rat/vermin prevention schemes in place with regularly inspected traps, it is the only way to keep on top of the rat problem which may increase when producing your own food.
If you are using any kind of water well then they should be situated where any kind of flood water cannot enter the well head. The well head should be raised from the ground as high as possible so any flood water from any source natural or accidental cant enter the well which would render it useless.
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