The borewell saga

Well... Initially I wanted to save the environment and all that. So I put my foot down saying no bore well. While building a residential property, the govt here levies commercial rates for water if we use water from public supply. So, after all the foundation pits were dug up I decided on the bore well. Reasons:
1) Commercial rates for water costs a bomb!
2) Public supply is intermittent and quantity unreliable
3) In future water might become scarce and better to have own supply

So we had to fill 2 pits, get the compound wall dug up and get a diviner to choose a spot for drilling that's assured of water. I got 2 diviners just to be sure and thankfully they both pointed to the same location.

So finally last Sunday, the 2-Nov, we got the bore well thing done. 60ft soft mud and after that only hard granite. Bored upto 200 ft after which it couldn't go any deeper. The water quantity was so large the hydraulic pressure could go no further. An aunt knew the bore well service provider and so we got some discount.

It was good fun watching the water start to gush out as the drill bit went in. Initially a cutter bit is used till they strike stone. Later a hydraulic big diameter bit that oscillates under pressure and strikes the stone powdering it is used. A plastic case is inserted first to hold the clay from collapsing and then a metallic casing is inserted deep until the stone to create a well sealed hole. The drill bit is then changed to a smaller one and pounding continued till sufficient water is found.

End of the day, I had a splitting headache. No sleep previous night worring about the cost and water availability and to add to it all the noise from drilling! Good at least we have nice clean water supply.

Ground structure: Soil 20 ft, clay 60ft, white granite 150ft, grey granite 180ft and black granite till 230ft. :-)

p.s: I know the tenses are all mixed up. excuse me for that.