Our Water Supply

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
This was a public water supply in the Caribbean. Actually a couple of different islands. But they aren't exactly known for their maintenance on things, so who knows. Water always tasked salty in some places. Never really satisfying.


Which also makes me wonder why they burn diesel fuel to produce electricity when they are surrounded by an ocean of waves and a sky full of wind and sun.
Overhead and initial cost of installation. Desal is still a WIP, we looked into it here a couple years ago and built one that was a total failure. The water was potable but no where near are normal aquifer water.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
@R!f@@ Try this. Take some bleach and put 2-3 drops in a gallon of water. Then do another without the bleach. This is used to make water drinkable in an emergency situation. If its an algae or bacteria it won't grow with the bleach in it.
 

someonesdad

Joined Jul 7, 2009
1,583
Also be careful around sunlight. I can put our tapwater into a clear or translucent container and sit it on a north-facing window sill (I'm in the northern hemisphere) and it will develop a green growth in it over time (I assume it's algae). If I do this outside with our 5 gallon water containers we use for camping, I get huge algae spots that are virtually impossible to remove through the narrow neck opening!
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
When I was growing up we had a well. The water smelled like bad eggs (sulfur) and left reddish scum like that. It got really thick inside the pipes sometimes, and left rings in the glasses if you let them sit too long. I think it was rust from the ground, as all our piping was PVC. if there's iron in the ground water, then it will rust, and you will have rust in the water. but you're not using ground water, but water from a desalinator, so its possible that rust is in the pipes. If they installed some kind of iron piping a few years ago, it could be rusting now and getting in the water. or it might not be rust, who knows? IIRC our reddish scum was darker than that; yours looks almost pink.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
We went through the same thing when I was a teen. A lot of my neighbors used 55 gallon drums to make water filtration systems using the charcoal and sand I keep mentioning, it took care of the worst of it.

My Dad was a city boy moved country. Think Green Acres. We didn't have a filtration system.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
My Dad was a city boy moved country. Think Green Acres. We didn't have a filtration system.
My dad was a country boy single parent living in a 30y/o singlewide trailer out in the sticks & trying to run a failing 1-man company; he didn't have the time to build or money to buy a filtration system for the longest time. Once his business took off and we did have the money for it, we were used to it and didn't care anymore. It wasn't until he got a girlfiend a few years later and she wouldn't shower in it, that he finally got a filtration system.
 

magnet18

Joined Dec 22, 2010
1,227
We live in the country, get our water from a well for free (minus the electricity needed to pump it out of the ground, not hard where I live. All we have is a softener, which takes some of the iron and sulfur out of the system using salt. Without it our water smells like eggs and can look brownish in large quantities. Still, it's safe to drink, and if you have been drinking yours for some time then it's probably fine, though I don't know what the laws are for the water companies in the maldives.
 

Dave

Joined Nov 17, 2003
6,969
Every so often the water we get out of the taps here in the UK has a slight yellow tinge to it. It is notable after a prolonged downpour. It is noticeable when you run a bath and see the contrast of the yellowish water against the white bath. I am not aware that it is of any danger.

Dave
 

magnet18

Joined Dec 22, 2010
1,227
this pretty much sums it up
cornfields and woods, with a very high water table and common flooding after prolonged rains
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
The United States has mega cities, but still have plenty of room left. Just don't expect much in the way of amenities.
 

HarveyH42

Joined Jul 22, 2007
426
If you put Hydrogen Peroxide on the pink residue, wouldn't it foam and bubble, if its a biological, such as bacteria or algae?

Water from shallow wells around here, is more of an orange color, and can't believe people still use it for anything other than watering their lawn, which also smells bad when they do. Deep wells bring up clean water, but it still has a high mineral content, which leaves a white or light yellow build up after a while. Probably not a lot of natural source of good clean water, near populated areas anymore.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Wells and good clean water do not necessarily mix. They never have. But water is the liquid of life, if that is all there is, you drink it. If you are lucky to live in an area where clean water does flow underground it is just that, luck.

It is also why filters are an old tech.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Bills right, I've seen more issues with wells then tap. We live in a state where wells are common because we have a huge river system under the ground here. Some places have bad ground water because of all the fertilizers used near industrial farms, etc... For instance our wells were drying up last spring because the berry farmers used so much water during winter it dried up many people wells and created huge sink holes. Thats really a FL problem because our land is so sandy, and we have so much water under us.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Some of my neighbors are from Mexico, where water is a precious commodity. I've seen more than one water filtration scheme next to the house (for the entire house). The footprint is around 2'D X 6'W X 6'H. I don't consider that very big, it is two really wide bottles.

Personally I think it is a waste of money, our tap water is very clean, and a small tap filter cleans up the residual taste.

Country tech starts with 55 gallon drums. You mount them on a small stand to allow the bottom to have a water outlet. Total footprint 4' X 4' X 4'.
 

Thread Starter

R!f@@

Joined Apr 2, 2009
9,918
Here u know most of the island water wells are still clean.

But it is in the capital that the water smell like peeeeeeeeeeeew!
 

magnet18

Joined Dec 22, 2010
1,227
Man u have space to spare...
Rifaa, look at this-


and imagine it taking up this much of america-


I've been to parts of america where you can drive for hours upon hours along major highways and not see another human being the whole time.

(and just so you can get a scale of the size, if you put a square on that map with the total land area of the Maldives on it, it wouldn't even show up. If it did, it would be a single pixel.)
 
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