The Mega Project - Digging up an open well (June 2012)

I got sarcastic comments right on the face when I said that "I am going to dig a open well". But we were very confident because of the test results from our test borewells. There is no point in digging 500 feet borewell when water is available in shallow depths.
Digging a well was once considered to be a daunting task because of time and the labour involved in it. But one can easily dug upto 23 feet with the big machines like poclain.

We hired a Hitachi - 130 for 1350 Rs / Hour.
Well Diameter : 30 Feet

It was very easy for the machine to dug upto 14 feet as there was no hard rocks, but clearing the water was a big issue as the petrol pump which we hired was not efficient and stopped working every one hour.

When the hard rocks surface, poclains need the help of the compressors to drill holes and blast them.
Each time they drilled upto 70-100 holes and applied explosives.It was pretty thrilling to pop out of the hideouts and see the explosion.
I remember that we did 3/4 such operations and every time it cleared 3 feets of rocks.

It took around 48 hours to reach 23 feet beyond that is not reachable for the poclains, also it was difficult to clear the water with our pump set.
It was a pleasant surprise when we saw that the well was in full capacity the next day, it was just 5/6 feet from the ground.

We may need to use man power + compressor to dig further but as of now we are not in need of that.
If there is a shortage after our plantations in next summer we may dig further.

Costing:
30 Feet Diameter X 25 Feet Depth(Approx)
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Hitachi 130 charges: 43,200 Rs (1350 rs X 32 Hour)
Transport: 4000  Rs
Compressor : 20,000 Rs
Total Cost : 67200 Rs

Drilling test borewells - (During March 2012)

The geologist suggested 3 spots and he assured that the results will be same in all of them.
And we liked the first one which was adjacent to the stream, which flow from the north-east.

We called a local driller who was ready to drill 100 feets for 9000 Rs with a 4 inch bore.We started the work in the afternoon and thought of finishing it by evening, but it went on till mid night due to some technical snags.

We were thrilled to see water from 20 feet onwards but our enthusiasm went down to find only 0.5-1 inch size water till 100 feet.

In the morning we decided not to dig the well in that location and wanted to try the next spot (another 9000Rs !!).

The next spot is a gambling with respect to the stability of the rock layers because of the calcium carbonate deposits on the surface , I have seen water oozing out of that round area even after a week after rain.
I guessed it could be because of  groundwater stream underneath and the work was started immediately.

The water started gushing out after 15 feet and it started increasing with every 5 feet.The entire area is flooded and it was a awesome sight!!

The diggers were not able to drill after 60 feet due to the water pressure and they stopped drilling.
And we have found the right spot to dig a open well.

Electrical Resistivity Survey

Hi Folks,

We did a electrical resistivity survey 2 months back.It was done by a geologist from dharmapuri.
Indeed we tried the methods of water diviners like stick , coconut etc, but I was very skeptic about those results. I was actually worried about the cost involved in digging a big size well.

We opted to go for a open well instead of borewell because of the shallow depth of the groundwater.
I was behind a person based out of rajajinagar, bangalore for electrical resistivity survey, he is really a crazy money minded guy who kept delaying things and wasted several months for his appointment.

Then we came to know about this geologist from dharmapuri who did the survey and suggested us 3 points.

We estimated that it will take almost 3 lakh rs to dig a well of 30 feet diameter and not ready to take a risk without test bore.

Please look at the next post for the process of digging test bores.

Regards
Mohan


What is electrical resistivity survey ?

Just simple physics if I am not wrong, place a line of four electrodes, pass electricity in the outer electrodes and find the trend of the voltage in the inner electrodes. Based on the results he will diagnose the kind of rocks and water flow underneath the points.

Location of farmnomics

I am techie turned green enthusiast, passionate about building a hitech farm in our recently (Jan 2010) bought land near palacodu(tamil nadu).

The size of the land is about 25 acres.We found that there was a tamarind farm maintained by the owner before he sold it to real estate folks. I should really thank the recession during 2010, which helped to me buy this land. Also it was affordable for me, just because it was ignored by many buyers for its deserted look after uprooting all the tamarind trees.

It is a barren land now, but I am bit lucky to own it, I selected this for its abundant water resources.There are couple of lakes nearby and a river flow (from Panchapalli dam) which is just 1 km away.

From day one, all my thoughts and energy are spent on making this into a lush green agro farm. All my savings were spent on to buy this land and nothing is left out except lots of HOPE.

We need to start everything from the scratch , even the basic infrastructure like electricity, shelter, well etc, are yet to be developed.

Join my journey of building this to a lush green farm, with one step at a time..

Please provide your valuable suggestions.

Regards,

Mohan