The Sahara dust is letting up some. Thou still in a haze, I can see POP today and the sky is blue'r.

It continues to be dry with no possible rain in sight.

Our new well is working out very nicely but we are watching it and still conserving water until we learn the capacity of the well. So far we have filled half a cistern and now filling the other so about 10K gallons running it part time. (over 15 gpm)

My wife is more optimistic and wants to paint and fill her pool. OH WELLLLL!

It is nice that our Solar system is keeping up with everything so it's like getting "Free" clean water. Just filling up the pool and not paying for trucked water about pays for our well project.

Our neighbors next to us drilled and have clean fresh water too. Others are drilling around our neighborhood but I don't know how many are getting fresh water vs salt.

The No City Water in my area is now expanding into the town of Sosua and water trucks are running all the time.

We have heard that the water company, Corraplata, has doubled their rates while cutting back on supply/service and...... water.

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A friend on here asked for some details so I'll try to answer here.

Keep in mind that many variables come into play so each needs to do their own research and get 2 or more price estimates and understand what is going to happen and what is included.

Our driller knows our area so he set our expectations but could not say if we were going to get fresh or salty water.

Our main worker knows this guy and his family so we got a very good price. For us and in our area the whole price is under U.S. $1,500. We also have our own hired help that is doing a lot of the work with me.

1. Hit water at 31 feet. Less then 4 hours of drilling. Went down another 5 feet or so since the water level came up 8 feet after he hit the vain we didn't need to drill much more.

2. Price included the drilling and installing the pipe casings.

3. We bought the 1 HP pump, wire, pump hose and support cable. The pump is 220V but came with a control box with on/off, breaker and 110 to 220 converter so we could just plug it into a regular outlet. The pump has it's own pressure setting so shuts off when the upper limit is met and on when pressure falls and water is needed. Pump uses 5.8 amps/single phase. About 15 gpm.

4. We already had electrical conduit from our electric box to the pump area. Just needed to run new wire from the control box installed in our "water room" to the pump.

5. We are finishing the well head. We devised a collar to go around the well casing pipe so we can pour cement around the upper 2 feet of the pipe so that dirt and outside water does not run down from the ground level.

6. We will build a small cement block housing with removable top to protect the well, attach the pump support cable and be able to take the top off to raise the pump if/when needed.

7. We have a water line right next to the pump for outside watering but can connect into that so we can have a direct water line into everything BUT the cisterns. We can use a hose or come up with a water feed into those later.

8. We made sure that all this is within our property so that others could not claim it is a public well and tap into it.

9. Some time ago, Corraplata said that we needed all sorts of permits; aka payoffs to install a well AND THAT THEY OWN THE WELL and would have to pay for the water.

The driller said that is a bunch on B.S. since it is on private property.

I hope that I have covered most questions but feel free to ask if you need more information.

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A couple of other considerations? To bad we don't have an Edit option here.

Well location?
The truck is large.

Access to electric and water pipes.

Contamination hazards such as septic tanks, fuel/repair stations, road water run off or other pollutants.

They drill with a pipe that gets packed with the ground material so they bring up the loaded pipe and have to empty it. It will make a nasty pile of material that will need to be cleaned up. Perhaps a tarp?

The pump that we bought only has about 3 feet of 4 wires (220) electric cable. We staggered our 4 splice connections to be about 1.5 inches apart and used the crimping method. Each connection then has heat shrink protection with a final large heat shrink to cover the whole spliced area. Then electric tape and tie wraps.

PLEASE don't rely on your electrician to be anywhere close to doing this correctly.

We used a polarity tester to double check the outlet and use a high volt trip surge protector to protect the control box and pump.

We double checked that we had proper grounding. This is something that escapes most electricians here and they usually cut it off or will use 110 cable with 3 wires and use the ground wire for the 220 connection with no ground at all.

Being that this is an in water device, you might wish to consider a ground fault interrupter at your plug in or circuit breaker.

IF you are installing with others using it; make sure you have an "iron clad" agreement with recourse. Water Wars get very nasty.

I had places in the US that had wells. I'm not an expert but glad to share what I can. Others with experience are also welcome to contribute.

Good Luck. Sereno
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I know of 2 more wells being drilled today in the Sosua area. One is right on the main road near the water main. Guess that it's not producing much OR the price of water is to high OR paying more and getting less?

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Sorry for being a thread hog.

Just found this and is very important and touches on what I posted above.
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From Dominican Today:

90% of water consumed in Santo Domingo come from toilets: geologist.

Santo Domingo.– Geologist Osiris de Leon said that 90 percent of the water consumed in Santo Domingo is the one discharged from toilets and goes directly and untreated to the groundwater.

As reported in El Nuevo Diario on Sunday, De Leon warned that mishandling of groundwater poses a tremendous risk to the population’s health, and could lead to a bacteriological problem and an epidemic due to the consumption of highly contaminated water.

According to the expert, who recently published his book "Challenges of Urban Water in the Americas," discharges of sewage from Santo Domingo's nearly 3.5 million inhabitants send 7,000 tons of excrement to the groundwater daily.

He also explained that Health authorities should carry out bacteriological studies in tourist destinations such as Boca Chica, Punta Cana and Bavaro, for 100 percent of the water consumed in these locations come from the groundwater
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Something to really think about and understand. We also considered where our septic system is and other possible contaminants in the area and WE are the only one with our own septic tank being the biggest concern.

We have a whole house/apt water purification system so all indoor water is potable; drinking quality. We have it tested every year and with the new well will have that water tested and what comes out of the faucet.

These systems are not that expensive in the long run. Ours has been working 100% for over 10 years with minor maintenance. Pool chlorine tablets in the cistern once a month. Two water filters on timers. UV sanitizer that is on all the time. This system takes care of keeping the cistern clean, filters larger particles and KILLS just about any bug in the water.

It DOES NOT remove soluble (sp??) salts/minerals from the water. You would need a rather expensive reverse osmosis system that is also expensive to run and maintain for larger applications.

WOW.... Have you are fallen asleep yet?

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One point to consider is that most wells in a given area are tapping the same aquifer (source), so if many people in the area drill wells, the aquifer can be depleted and the water table will fall. In areas near salt water, this can result in salt contamination as salt water replaces the fresh water as the fresh water level goes down.

I developed some land in New Mexico where water is sometimes more expensive than land. The state has strict regulations on the amount of water that can be drawn from private wells in order to protect the common aquifers. Despite what your driller told you, there may well be similar regulations in the DR.

Although rainfall on the North Coast is far from constant through the year, with a long dry spell over the summer, rain water is still an excellent source of high quality water. With average annual rainfall of about 58 inches, my roof with about 1,000 square feet, can catch a total of more than 40,000 gallons per year. If you calculate how much water you will need per day over the roughly 7-month dry season, you'll know how big a cistern you'll need. Mine is about 13,000 gallons. A cistern that size isn't cheap, but it provides a fairly reliable source of good quality water that is free for the taking and does not deplete the aquifer. (After all, most of it will eventually go into the ground after your use it.) If you can manage to integrate your cistern into the design of your house, you can save a bit of the cost.

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Choosing an expat health insurance provider is an important decision. Get a quote from our trusted expat health insurance partner, CIGNA. With Cigna Global Health Options, you can create an international health insurance plan that's perfectly tailored for the needs of you and your family.

We finished hooking up everything the other day and all functions are good EXCEPT..... our pump does NOT have the pressure high/low; off/on system as we thought it did. It is plumbed into our existing system and saw that we had close to 60 PSI so I shut it down. Too much pressure.

Since we installed the control box in our main water room next our cistern system, we will add another pressure switch on that system to control the new well pump. Easy to do since everything is in the same place. Then we adjust the pressure ranges so that both don't work at the same time. (Plus our other system so 3 to adjust.)

So when buying a well pump; double check what it has.

Corraplata was snooping around this morning looking for those that put in wells. ROFL! I'm told by others that over 11 new wells in my area in 1 week.
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Dominican Today.

High temps continue; low chance of rain

Santo Domingo.- The National Weather Office (Onamet) forecast continuing high temperatures from the warm southeast wind and the dust from the Sahara, and a low chance of rain.

It said however that scattered showers can be expected over some western and northeastern provinces during the next 48 hours.

Onamet adds that temperature will range from a high of 33ºC to a low of 22ºC.

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This Sahara storm just does not quit. POP gone again and it seams always darker outside with this dust in the air.

And it is dry. Our humidity is around 50% that is very low for us. I tested this by playing my piano that usually has everything sticking due to humidity. Everything worked fine and not needing several hours of AC to dry it out. Too bad that no practice for some times has my fingers hitting the wrong keys.

Well is doing fine BUT we are watching our use and finding the well recovery rate. We start to suck a little air after 6 hours of constant use. So we are happy with that and respect that we need to let the well recover. Both cisterns are full as well as several other heavy water related things done.

In the news; Dominican Today:
(IMO.. just the beginning. My pastures down the street are in big trouble with no water and no rain. I'm thinking that I'd better put in another well but security is a big issue. But thinking that I have no choice and have to find a solution.)

Dominican dairy producers fear 30% plunge on drought

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Milk Producers Association (Aproleche) president Eric Rivero cautioned Thursday that if the drought continues domestic milk production and dairy products could fall as much as 30%.

"The situation is dramatic in almost the entire country, due to reduced water flow in high livestock production areas, which is closely linked to the lack of rain in parts of the Central Cibao, North Shore, South and deep South, and in the east of the country," said the also president of the national agro producers (Confenagro).

He said the livestock situation is critical in provinces with large areas of pasturelands.

More than 300 farmers in the ??Puerto Plata area have reported major losses for pig farms and agriculture caused by the lack of rain in recent months.

They said the prolonged drought has completely dried the lagoons dug for their animals, while the alternate wells have already begun to show signs of depletion.

Reports from other regions also paint a bleak picture for thousands of farmers and ranchers as the drought shrivels crops and parches grazing lands.
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Dominican Republic stunned by two weeks of forest fires

La Vega, Dominican Republic.- A forest fire was spotted Thursday on the north slope of Loma Miranda (central), between the villages Las Manaclitas and Los Algarrobos, where firefighters and volunteers arrived to battle the blaze.

Environment Ministry technicians from the north region work to douse the flames and suspect arson. The smoke can seen be from the Duarte Highway.

Area farmers quoted by local media say they saw six men hiking up to Loma Miranda and began to notice smoke less than two hours before they came down.

Local residents also complained that they reported the blaze to authorities, but were ignored, until around 2pm when a crew arrived.

The wildfire is the latest in spate of blazes across the country during the last two weeks, some blamed on arsonists while the rest were likely the result of a prolonged drought.
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Have a good evening and .... pass the Chap Stick for my dry lips. LOL. Sereno

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We have had some rain in the last couple of days as in the D.R. forecast. 1/4 of an inch and I was glad to get that. We were able to check out our new gutters and rain harvest system and it works OK. We are still adjusting out 3 water pump system but it looks real good but concerned that we don't over use any of them just to have green grass.

Dominican Today:

Santo Domingo.- Aqueduct authorities continue the efforts to mitigate the effects of the nationwide drought, on mounting expectations the rains will start in the coming days.

The Santo Domingo water utility (CAASD) on Sunday said the delivery of water in tankers was increased as the drought became more intense in recent days.

It said a total of 72 of trucks delivered 2.8 million gallons of water to the most affected sectors over the weekend.

The State-owned water agency (INAPA) also reported plans to contract 100 tanker trucks and buy equipment to deal with the drought, which has been described as the most intense in recent years.
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Santo Domingo.- Investigative reporter Nuria Piera on Monday revealed new data which purportedly uncovers corruption in the National Water and Sewage Systems Institute (INAPA), headed by Alberto Holguin.

Speaking on her Monday night program the renowned journalist reported that “INAPA’s corruption is expressed in this case with irregularities, nepotism, influence peddling and legal violations in the administration of state funds.”

“Eight contracts will be awarded to just one company on the same day in August, despite that other companies had costs below the one which was benefited,” Piera said.

She said contracts awarded to associates of INAPA’s director abound. “Purchases and contracts are fractioned to avoid the obligation of conducting a call for tenders or contests.”
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WHAT???? Corruption in the water dept.?

Taking longer showers these days and I deserve it. LOL.

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Synchronizing the pumps/systems day. Using lots of water on the gardens to learn what I have to adjust.

Dominican Today:

Country’s ‘worst drought’ in 20 years; water levels critical: EFE

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic faces its worst drought in the last 20 years on low rainfall since 2014, while the water current reserves are considered critical, EFE reports.

Santo Domingo Technology Institute (ITEC) water resources expert Martin Melendez said the country went through a similar situation in 1997 and, as then, from the lack of rain attributed to the climatic phenomenon El Niño.

He called the situation in the north "very critical" to the point that if it doesn’t rain in June, "we will not have water to supply the Cibao (north region)" said Melendez, based on reports of low levels at the Tavera-Bao dams.

He said the dams’ total water levels are currently at 314 meters, when "the minimum allowable is 320" and calculating a drop of 10 centimeters per day, if continues, “we will be dry in around 30 days.”

Melendez said the reservoirs at Jarabacoa (central) are in a similar situation, "at the bottom," adding that the country’s water crisis requires one month of downpours.
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It also requires that the infrastructure be rebuilt and education.

Not to mention (?) the increase in population and the massive projects that have been built in the last 10-20 years requiring huge amounts of water. (can you imagine how much is used in ONE resort?)

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MY official Coconut crop report and predictions for 2015.

After much study and advisory expert counsel concerning the condition of this years coconut harvest ; we as a group have concluded, and I quote the other experts that I concur with:

"It will suck." (no offense intended but it is a quote.)

We studied my coconut grove consisting of 10 trees and noted that we are down about 65% in coconuts that are on the trees to ripen and that new fruit is ........... non-existent Most of the maturing fruit have dried up and the new sprigs for new fruit also have gone dry.

Normally we have so many that we can not give them away. We make coconut (banana/chocolate/custard) cream pies, brownies, cookies, fresh coco milk to drink.

This year it looks like we will not have the our crop and .... no coconut pies or beverage.

Out dang Drought.... out I tell you.

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Our systems are all coordinated and working great. We are the last house on our street with no others on 3 sides of us so even though we are concerned about our well, running it dry, we have no one drilling anywhere near us on those 3 sides. (Does the Atlantic Ocean on one side count?)

More wells are being drilled in our area with some complexes putting in more then 1 well on small plots within 100 feet of the other. I guess that they don't realize that they run the risk of running out of well water all the faster.

I'm told that no less the 10 wells were drilled in Sosua yesterday alone. This could be a disaster in more then one way. One being that they deplete the underground water with so many well close together. The other is that area is all old septic systems are most likely polluting that ground water so the risk of a major illness outbreak becomes high. I'm think Cholera.

I'm sure that wells are going in everywhere since the word is that Corraplata has completely failed to do anything about the situation and that the rivers and reservoirs in are area are dry.

Dominican Today:

Dominican Republic’s water sources under ‘condition red’

Santo Domingo.- “Condition red,” “critical,” “extreme” among other descriptions were voiced Wednesday during a meeting of the heads of the various Dominican governmental agencies that keep tabs on the country’s water resources nationwide.

For dams and canals agency (INDRHI) director Olgo Fernandez the situation spurred by the lack of rain and ensuing drought across the country is "dramatic."

He said action is needed to better rationalize the little water still left in the reservoirs.

The official said Hatillo, Cotui (northeast), and Rincon, La Vega (central) are the only dams still operating normally due to the rains in February.

“The other dams are in red," Fernandez said, for which Indrhi decided to operate them in "tandem," or five days releasing water and 10 days without.

The official called the situation is "difficult" because water management also includes the supply to aqueducts and electricity generation, adding that rationalization is the only way to deal with the "extreme" drought

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Another article that has more depth to it.


EL NUEVO DIARIO, Santo Domingo (EFE).- República Dominicana enfrenta una de las peores sequías de los últimos 20 años, debido a la falta de lluvias que viene arrastrando desde 2014 y actualmente los embalses de reserva de agua registran una situación aún más crítica.

El ingeniero y experto en recursos hídricos del Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (ITEC), Martín Meléndez, aseguró a Efe que el país no vivía una situación semejante desde 1997 y que, como entonces, la carencia de lluvias se debe al fenómeno denominado "El Niño".

En el norte del país la situación es "muy crítica", hasta el punto de que, si no llueve en el próximo mes, "no va a haber agua para abastecer al Cibao", aseguró Meléndez, basándose en un informe de la Corporación del Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Santiago (CORASAAN) que revela los bajísimos niveles que presenta el embalse de Taveras.

A día de hoy, el agua de los embalses alcanza los 314 metros, cuando "el mínimo permisible es de 320" y, teniendo en cuenta que desciende a razón de diez centímetros diarios, si eso sigue así, en unos 30 días estará seco, explicó.

El embalse de Jarabacoa (centro del país) presenta una estampa similar, "se ve el fondo", apuntó el ingeniero, quien afirmó que debería pasar un mes entero lloviendo para salir de esta crisis hídrica.

La sequía en el país es evidente a simple vista, especialmente en el norte del país donde la vegetación va perdiendo su habitual verde intenso y donde los numerosos incendios forestales, muchos de ellos presuntamente provocados, se propagan.

En la capital y el norte del país ya hay restricciones y es habitual ver carteles de aviso de cortes de agua en los barrios así como camiones cisterna de agua.

Históricamente mayo es un mes lluvioso en el país, pero las precipitaciones aún no han llegado, pese a que las predicciones anunciaban lluvia a partir de mitad de año y, llegados a este punto, el Estado "debe declarar la emergencia" para evitar un consumo rápido e irresponsable de los recursos, opinó.

"No podemos esperar" para tomar medidas como "prohibir el lavado de carros, o restringir el consumo" en viviendas, dijo Meléndez, que puso el ejemplo del estado norteamericano de California, donde una reciente normativa prevé multas de 500 dólares a aquellos que no reduzcan su consumo de agua en un 25 por ciento.

En la capital dominicana la situación no es tan "dramática", aunque el subdirector de Operaciones de la Corporación del Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Santo Domingo (CAASD), Luis Salcedo, la calificó de "sequía extrema", comparándola con la vivida en 1997 y, en menor medida, a la registrada en 2007.

Según explicó a Efe, en las presas de Valdesia y de Higüey tienen almacenados 70 millones de metros cúbicos de agua que, sumados a los recursos de los seis acueductos que abastecen al Gran Santo Domingo, garantizan el suministro hasta que lleguen las lluvias que, según Salcedo, son inminentes.

Aún así, la institución ha reducido en un 25 por ciento su producción diaria de agua, unos 100 millones de galones de agua menos cada día, disminución que se deja notar en un menor caudal de agua potable en los puntos topográficamente más altos del Gran Santo Domingo.

Para mitigar las consecuencias de esta merma, la entidad ha dispuesto una flotilla de camiones cisterna que están distribuyendo unos 900 mil galones del líquido en los sectores más vulnerables.

La CAASD se mantiene "en contacto permanente con la población para que haga un uso responsable del agua" y trabaja en solucionar las averías en la red de distribución para evitar el desperdicio de agua a causa de roturas, apuntó Salcedo.

Las predicciones de la Oficina Nacional de Meteorología (Onamet) anuncian que la presencia de una vaguada en los niveles medios de la atmósfera incidirá sobre el país, pero no encontrará humedad suficiente para producir lluvias generalizadas.

Tal y como ocurrió este lunes, solo provocará chubascos locales en algunas localidades de la región noreste, sureste y la cordillera Central, y en el resto del área seguirán predominando condiciones secas y ventosas.

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Speaking of wells and living independent of water and electricity...would appreciate any guidance as to who to hire to drop a well and where one should get solar panels and inversores. When we find our perfect Niche, these are the 2 things I would do first. Also sisterns and rain catching systems. I know how unreliable services are and want to be independent of them should they fail.

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You have a little problem since you don't know where you are going to live. But you can plan ahead and make that part of what you buy to live.

I LOVE MY SOLAR. Buy in the U.S. and ship it down with your other stuff. 12 GOOD panels and an Outback controller. LOT'S OF WIRE. (the price of wire here is very high.) Research inverters and get a good name brand that is bigger then you think you need. You will have to buy the batteries here I think since you don't know when you will be ready for them.

I'll try to enter better info in the Solar forum.

Rain gutters are very expensive also unless you do the cheap way that looks like heck and don't function that well. We just got a couple of leaf catchers that help filter our rain water coming from the downspout and is plumbed into our cisterns. Better then the barrel with the insect screen that is rather unsightly; but it does work. Found them on Ebay for around $45. and my wife brought them in from the US in her luggage.

No point in giving names of people since you don't know where you will be and when.

You are thinking ahead and that is a very good thing.

OH.... Consider a front load washer that is energy efficient. How many in your family?

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We have had about 1/2" of rain so far this month at my place. That works out to around 1,500 gallons of rain water harvested and into our cisterns. May not sound like much but it really does make a difference. ;)

Dominican Today:

Showers didn’t improve the capital’s dire water crunch

Santo Domingo.- Santo Domingo water utility (CAASD) on Friday warned that the lowest rain levels posted since 2014 in Greater Santo Domingo’s watersheds have cut the flow at Haina, Duey, Isa, Isabela and Ozama rivers by around 122 million gallons of piped water per day.

It said the normal water supply to Greater Santo Domingo, which is between 380 and 400 million gallons per day, was reduced to 278 million as of Sunday.

CAASD director Alejandro Montas said Santo Domingo’s most important aqueduct, Haina-Manoguayabo "normally produces 80 million gallons per day," but supplied just 27 million gallons, or a 66 percent fall on Sunday.

The official’s warning comes despite scattered showers across the country over the weekend.
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We had about 2" of rain last night. That equals about 4,000 gallons into my cisterns. Our new gutters working fine and impressed with the Leaf Eaters; found on Amazon; that we installed on the down spouts that are then plumbed into the cisterns. My wife will mule back 2 more from the U.S. this week so we can complete that project.
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I kinda felt that this article sends a mixed message.

From a few days ago on Dominican Today.

Showers ease drought; utility pumps more water from wells

Santo Domingo.- Piped water supply jumped to 306 million gallons on Monday from the weekend rains over the Haina river’s lower and middle basins, which cut the deficit to just 94 million gallons.

The Santo Domingo Water Utility (CAASD) said despite an increase of 28 million gallons the drought continues to plague Greater Santo Domingo, “so we hope for an improvement with the occurrence of rains in the coming days as reported by the National Meteorology Office.”

CAASD deputy director Luis Salcedo said only the Haina river improved its volume, because it didn’t rain on the upper basin, site of the intakes of the aqueducts Isa and Duey rivers.

"The Haina-Manoguayabo system increased production by 10 million gallons, the remaining 18 million were increased due to higher production of the systems that extract groundwater, such as the well fields," the official said.
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I'm told that over 15 wells have been drilled this month in our area of Playa Chiquita with 3 more done yesterday.

More also going in the town of Sosua.

We are working on getting electricity onto our pasture land to drill another well there. Edenorte is being a real problem...... as expected.

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So after my wife had spent over an hour at Edenorte to get power to our pasture land... and needed to get more papers that needed the official stamps.... Our foreman and I ventured to the Edenorte office yesterday morning with a stack of papers and ID's. I played stupid gringo and let our man handle things. Our man is a good looking young man and the girl and him were flirting while I sat to the side playing my part. The girl didn't even look at the papers and just filled out the forms. The new electrical connection goes in next week.

So with that close to being under control we called the drilling guy and by the end of the day the well was drilled and sleeved. Hit water at 27' and drilled another 8. Sweet water. We will start to build the well house today to protect the equipment and secure it. That should be finished before the electric people have installed the new cables and meter.

We, and everyone else, have had a BIG problem with ONE person in the area that is next to our lots. He also is the main cause for several houses not getting water since he has cut everyone off. Corraplata knows it but did nothing. When HIS water stopped he yells at everyone and makes trouble. Loud mouth that does not stop yelling and even thou you wait for him to stop and take a breath..... he doesn't. He opens unlocked gates and walks right onto private property and does his rants that have gone on for hours. He has been threatened by a few people and punched out at least once. SOOOO.... I gave our man my shotgun and told him to wave it around and to use it if he enters our closed gate. Guess that "Mussolini" saw it and never got near us. The police did show up and just started laughing and even a little disappointed that we didn't "take care" of him. They have had their run-ins with him and can not stand him either.

So we will take extra steps so that he can not steel our water at night as he has with others. He even pumped out his neighbors cistern and pool while they were away for a week.

Don't let what rain we have had fool you into thinking that the Drought is over. A few light showers yesterday but the D.R. is so behind on rainfall that in a short time we will really be in trouble around the Country.

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YIPPEEE! All the materials have been ordered and workers lined up for Monday. Since we don't have water yet, a good neighbor will run a hose over so that cement can be mixed.

Bought the pump and it's really neat. I'm told this is what is used most of the time in the campo.

Bomba Ladrona. Made for shallow wells. 1/2 hp. 110 VAC, 5 amps. Has its' own little pressure tank and pressure switch. Can be bolted to the cement floor. Can run continuously. Can be set for up to 87 psi (that would blow most plumbing connections that are done here.)

We don't have a lot of store choices in the Sosua area and learned that it's not fun to run around POP or to Santiago just to save a few pesos. We got the last one in our area and glad to pay the DP $10,125. with 1,545 of that in Tax.

I'll experiment with it once up and running but feel that 50 psi is more then enough to run two large lawn sprinklers with no problem. I have the crawling "tractor" type ones that I really like in the pastures since I don't have to go move them.

Sometimes.... just SOMETIMES, a project comes together and keeps moving forward.

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I should know better. How "Yippeee" can turn into utter frustration 24 hour later. This simple project just keeps going and going without a finish in sight.

Materials showed up to build the well house. Half of what was needed.

Edenorte showed up but will not install electric meter until "house" is done.

That great Ladron pump system does NOT work even on a shallow well. (our other pump was having some problems so we hooked up the new one to see what it would do. It did NOTHING despite being told by several that it would be perfect.)

Back to the drawing board?

I'm trying to let our trusted foreman do this VERY SIMPLE project but.... never mind.

We don't know why our first pump is having problems but unless it fails completely the seller will not change it for a new one. Fine! I'm running the heck out of it and watching the water flow failing.

OK... Stupid? Had to buy the same pump for the new pasture well but also needed a small expansion tank and pressure on/off switch.

My man wants to use solid pipe for this well but .... I needed to tell him he needed a larger hole/pipe in the roof to get the well pipe in. (hitting head against wall)

Did you install the ground pipe as I told you? Nope.

Our 15 year old jeep has had more miles put on it in the last 2 weeks then in it's whole 15 years. (ok... a little exaggerated.) Our man does not know that it is OK to use the Jeep ONCE and pick up everything you need in ONE trip. NOOOOOO. Every item needs a special trip. One pump... one trip. One bag of cement is it's own trip. (same store) Need ONE screw? Yep... I'm getting screwed with the gas and time for one screw.

Still waiting for the door that was ordered and had to be modified since the well house is short (???) and a regular door will not fit so let's buy the really good double steel security door that I want and then... cut 12 inches off the bottom. (I have NOT asked about the steel frame yet.... Nope... NOT going to go there.)

Good news? The original pump is now back to working 75% capacity. Dang. We have pulled this pump 4 times trying to figure it out and like everything here; no figuring it out.

Rain catching system is doing just fine and glad for the recent showers.

OH.... NOTE. Wife's pool is full and so are our two cisterns. Some water from above but mostly from the well. It would have taken 15 or more water trucks to just fill the pool not to mention the cisterns too. That well has paid for it's self in less then a month. The stress relief is beyond words.

Now .... back to work.

Take care. Sereno

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Our first well is proving to be a good provider. The pump still has us baffled since it is not consistent with its' flow but appears to be doing much better.... most of the time.

Our second well in our pastures is all set to go except... Edenorte shows up, looks and leaves without doing anything. How many weeks is it now?

I've had a lot of work done cleaning up the pastures and have bags of fertilizer ready to spread and a place to move the horses to while we try to bring back the grass. Once the fertilizer is down I need constant watering for about a month before I can bring back the horses. A real pain and not cheap.

I don't know why I'm surprised that Edenorte (and Corraplata) are such Aholes.

As usual, I'm about to find my own way around them. A small generator will work fine and annoy our friend nick-named Mussolini. That is enough reason all by its self for the generator while producing water that he can not have. ROFL.

I did mow one pasture the other day and it was more of a dust storm then anything else. Weeds looked OK, grass was gone. Not sure if it is worth plumbing to water that pasture since it never had much grazing grass anyway. Easier to throw some hay in then trying to revive a dead horse. (ON NO... I said that?)

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With the little rain that the DR. had last month, I guess the Gov. has decided that the drought is over? I've not read anything saying it is or not. I know that my area still has no city water and after so many others re-plumbing so many water lines I don't ever expect a drop from Corraplata. Nor do I want any.

Endenorte showed up on Monday and connected the transformer to the box that they installed. No meter yet (fine with me) but jumped it so we could finish our electrical installation.

BINGO..... NEW WELL IS UP AND RUNNING for the pastures. Almost sweet but a very slight salt taste to it but should be fine for our horses, pasture and what the heck, me too. We had a little confusion at first since the well was not building pressure. After lots of ??? someone noticed that the last faucet way over thataway was on full blast. After closing that and fixing a couple of minor leaks we saw 50 psi real fast where the cut off is. We watched as one of our traveling lawn sprinklers crept along with hopes of saving what grass we can. 2 more sprinklers will be added tomorrow.

Our usual overcast skys just don't produce any rain. Thunder and lighting but no rain. I don't remember being is this long of a time with the overcast but it has cut my solar production by about 25% for just about a month now. The Generator kicks in for a hour some days when we are using more electric. Fine with me. It needs to run, diesel is getting older, I can run some AC and I'm not paying Edenorte.

A happier Sereno today...............and about time. ;)

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We had a little rain the other night so we harvested a few hundred gallons into our cisterns. Installed a couple more Leaf Eaters in the gutter down pipes and very impressed and a lot less work for cleaner rain water.

We figured part of our well pump problems is the power. The control converter is sensitive to low electricity so the pump output goes down. Running 3 sprinklers in my 2 pasture areas and finally seeing some new growth but the horses are quick to see it too. I have to work on where to move 2 horses for some time to give me time to fertilize and water for ... about 3 weeks??? (the fertilizer can kill the horses.

My stallion is in his own large pasture that only has weeds so we don't water that. We did run a water pipe onto that property to keep his water bucket full.
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I still have not seen anything in the D.R. papers about the drought. But I did find this via another web sight.

Caribbean swelters under worst drought in five years | Environment | The Guardian

The worst drought in five years is creeping across the Caribbean. From Puerto Rico to Cuba to St Lucia, crops are withering, reservoirs are drying up and cattle are dying while forecasters worry that the situation could only grow worse in the coming months.

Thanks to El Niño, a warming of the tropical Pacific that affects global weather, forecasters expect the hurricane season that began in June to be quieter than normal, with a shorter period of rains. That means less water to help refill Puerto Rico’s thirsty Carraizo and La Plata reservoirs as well as the La Plata river in the central island community of Naranjito. A tropical disturbance that hit the US territory on Monday did not fill up those reservoirs as officials had anticipated.

Puerto Rico is among the Caribbean islands worst hit by the water shortage, with more than 1.5 million people affected by the drought so far, according to the US National Drought Mitigation Center.

Tens of thousands of people receive water only every third day under strict rationing recently imposed by the island government. Puerto Rico last week also activated national guard troops to help distribute water and approved a resolution to impose fines on people and businesses for improper water use.

The Caribbean’s last severe drought was in 2010. The current one could grow worse if the hurricane season ending in November produces scant rainfall and the region enters the dry season with parched reservoirs, said Cedric Van Meerbeeck, a climatologist with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology.

“We might have serious water shortages … for irrigation of crops, firefighting, domestic consumption or consumption by the hotel sector,” he said.

The Caribbean isn’t the only area in the western hemisphere dealing with extreme water shortages. Brazil has been struggling with its own severe drought that has drained reservoirs serving the metropolis of São Paulo

In the Caribbean, the farm sector has lost more than $1m in crops as well as tens of thousands of dollars in livestock, said Norman Gibson, scientific officer at the Trinidad-based Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute.

On St Lucia, which has been especially hard hit, farmers say crops including coconuts, cashews and oranges are withering.

“The outlook is very, very bad,” said Anthony Herman, who oversees a local farm cooperative. “The trees are dying, the plants are dying … It’s stripping the very life of rivers.”

Officials in Cuba say 75% of the island is enduring a drought that has killed cattle and destroyed thousands of hectares (acres) of crops including plantains, citrus, rice and beans. Recent heavy rains in some areas have alleviated the problem some, but all 200 government-run reservoirs are far below capacity.

In the nearby Dominican Republic, water shortages have been reported in hundreds of communities, said Martin Melendez, a civil engineer and hydrology expert who has worked as a government consultant. “We were 30 days away from the entire water system collapsing,” he said.

The tourism sector has also been affected.

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My daughter in California says that it is getting bad there. A mandatory 20% water reduction for everyone. The farms have also been hit hard. Even though they can reclaim "used" water the people will not go for it due to the "Yuck" factor. Little do most of them know, a lot of water for agriculture is reclaimed treated sewage waste water.

Have a good evening. Sereno




Colombia's pipes to nowhere: villagers die of thirst as corruption stalls dam project






Read more

Most large hotels in Puerto Rico have big water tanks and some recycle wastewater to irrigate green areas, but many have curtailed water use, said Frank Comito, CEO of the Florida-based Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association.

Other hotels have cut back on sprinkler time by up to 50%, said Carlos Martínez of Puerto Rico’s Association of Hotels. “Everybody here is worried,” he said. “They are selling water tanks like hot cakes … and begging God for rain.”

Guests at Puerto Rico’s El Canario by the Lagoon hotel get a note with their room keys asking them to keep their showers short amid the water shortage. “We need your cooperation to avoid waste,” says the message distributed at the front desk of the hotel in the popular Condado district.

At the Casa del Vega guesthouse in St Lucia, tourists sometimes find the water in their rooms turned off for the day, preventing them from taking a shower. “Even though we have a drought guests are not sympathetic to that,” hotel manager Merlyn Compton said.

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It's been awhile since I've seen any reporting from the D.R. LOTs from other Countries around the World but... nothing here?
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www.dominicantoday.com

Santo Domingo.- The extreme nationwide drought from a months-long lack of rainfall have parched the rivers basins that feed the dams whose conditions are so critical that authorities on Wednesday announced emergency measures, restricting the use of water for irrigation to ensure supplies to aqueducts.

In a meeting of the heads of the various agencies grouped in the National Water Observatory, dams and canals agency (INDRHI) director Olgo Fernandez called the situation of the reservoirs cause for concern as water volumes are at the lowest of the past 15 years.

He said the dams at Jigüey and Valdesia that supply the aqueducts of Santo Domingo, San Cristóbal and Baní operate in critical conditions, forcing the rationing of water for irrigation.

Santo Domingo Water Utility (CAASD) director Alejandro Montas said the country’s current deficit of 75 million gallon in domestic water production –from the normal 400 million to 325 million gallons daily- makes it an emergency situation.

"The drought affecting the country is worrisome and the water left in the dams should be used for human consumption," Montas said.

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www.dominicantoday.com

Santo Domingo.- The extreme nationwide drought from a months-long lack of rainfall have parched the rivers basins that feed the dams whose conditions are so critical that authorities on Wednesday announced emergency measures, restricting the use of water for irrigation to ensure supplies to aqueducts.

In a meeting of the heads of the various agencies grouped in the National Water Observatory, dams and canals agency (INDRHI) director Olgo Fernandez called the situation of the reservoirs cause for concern as water volumes are at the lowest of the past 15 years.

He said the dams at Jigüey and Valdesia that supply the aqueducts of Santo Domingo, San Cristóbal and Baní operate in critical conditions, forcing the rationing of water for irrigation.

Santo Domingo Water Utility (CAASD) director Alejandro Montas said the country’s current deficit of 75 million gallon in domestic water production –from the normal 400 million to 325 million gallons daily- makes it an emergency situation.

"The drought affecting the country is worrisome and the water left in the dams should be used for human consumption," Montas said.

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www.dominicantoday.com

Santo Domingo.- The sweltering heat will continue over the next three days in the Dominican Republic especially the northwest, north and southeast regions and border area, the National Weather Office (Onamet) forecast Friday.

He said temperature will soar ??above 35 deg. C in many parts of the country and “may reach up to 38 degrees in the Dajabon, Santiago Rodriguez, Valverde, Montecristi, Puerto Plata and Elias Piña provinces.”

As to rain this weekend Onamet called the lower atmosphere’s conditions unfavorable, except for some widely scattered showers with afternoon thunderstorms over the northwest

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Absolutely Nothing to indicate any rain of any value.

More areas are having water problems. OK... I'm not very sympathetic since my area is over 18 months with none.

Most of us have put in wells or pay the water trucks that make the water company rich.

Since the building next to us has increased and so has massive amounts of dust; we have added another feature to our rain water harvesting system. Downspout First Flush diverts and drains off first dirty rain water and then the cleaner water enters the storage/cistern.

I've only had a very small rain to test this and... that does not count.

Need more rain dances.

Our wells are doing very "well" but trying to bring back scorched pastures, 1/4 of what I need; is really difficult but need to because hay for our horses is very hard to find. So without pasture feeding, my horses are in trouble and... my horses are more so.

Other issues have come up with others having problems but the laws and real water wars make for very challenging decisions on my part.

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First let me say that I am not some expert I just have looked into this for building an off-grid home and I wanted to share the idea and the timing is right. My understanding is that come winter months a very substantial La Nina event is expected to bring large rains back. Now to be clear, I don't know specifically that the DR will get them but his is supposed to happen as the El Nino becomes La Nina. My point is that this would be a great time to prepare with a water catchment system. It doesn't even have to be a permanent construction. For instance, but positioning cistern or in-ground tank and creating a catchment basin many hundreds of gallons of water could be collected during hard rains. I simplistic example is where you establish an area with a plastic tarp that captures the rain water and funnels it into the tank [other your roof like sereno talks about]. Here is an example for a region common rainfall in the USA, Atlanta, GA. A home roof system of 40x70 feet in dimension can capture 1,743 gallons or 6,601 liters of rainfall per one (1) inch of rain. So Georgia gets like 45 inches a year so this room system could capture 6,601 x 45 =29,700 gallons of water per year which ironically is about the content of a medium home swimming pool, theoretically. The DR ranges from 25 inches to 60 inches per year depending up on location and of course that is average over decades not now. So my last point is this, purchasing and installing 1500 gallon underground tank which can then be used to catch rainwater for decades is perhaps more economical than any other solution, you could also drag a hose and sell water to your neighbors to recoup your investment in times of drought.

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I apologize for my sloppy compilation and math I should have said

....6,601 x 45 =29,700 liters of water [not gallons]

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Thanks for posting your thoughts. I will not proof your math. lol I've lost track of how much roof I use to harvest rain water but I'm about 2,000 gallons per 1" of rain. About half into the front cistern that holds around 8,000 gallons and the other holds 10,000 gallons.

If I water my 1/2 acre property in one day with 1 hour per section I use about 10,000 gallons in 8 hours. Since I have to use my own cistern pumps, I need to have 2 going full time.

So I can empty both my cisterns in less the 2 days just trying to water the lawns/gardens and our personal needs such as shower, laundry, brush teeth and water the animals.

As I said above? No rain so no help. Any rain is very welcomed. Even IF I had lots of rain for a month, I as an individual could not store enough to last more then a couple of months after the rain stops... entering drought conditions.

Keep in mind that I have large animals that depend on my keeping grass in good condition for them to survive and we do use our home grass for them. Our other pastures are not included in this post.

I'll post a new one in a few.

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Santo Domingo is at Critical stage for water. Even the "best" areas have not had water for a week. A man was arrested for washing his car. ONE man.

I'm sorry, but after having NO water for almost 2 years I don't have much sympathy. Too many water wars just in my area with too many screaming but do nothing to solve their problems. They rather scream at me and others to solve their problems for them. I tried to organize our neighborhood so that all could share but.. THAT is NOT going to happen. Corraplata again has dug up all around and wanted to enter my pasture property because the ground was damp. I'VE GO WATER SPRINKLERS GOING YOU IDIOTS! They where told; warned again, that I will shoot anyone that enters my property and I had legal guns showing. The police backed me up and even brought me a chair so I could be comfortable watching Corraplata and one other very troublesome person.

It's not only hot but the dry winds never stop. If you have kept up with the news then you know what I'm talking about. Rain maybe in October?

Our first well has more salt so we can not use it. Even watering the lawns is causing more damage then help. We have a 500 gallon RO unit coming this week. So IF our shallow "fresh water" well, now with salt, should run dry then we can punch down into salt water with no problem.

We cleaned one cistern that we had used water trucks to fill a couple of months ago to be ready for our new well water. We cleaned it again yesterday to remove as much salt and "stuff" from that well water. We also removed several plastic bags, plastic bottles, tops, condoms, syringes and other cr?p that the truck delivered with the water. We had noticed a slick on the surface of the water but.... I don't want to know. The water truck was sucking water from one of the most polluted rivers in the area and shorting us on the delivered water.

New company and we put our own screens under their hose to see what they were providing us. Good water via our Corraplata friends (arrrrrggg) and a fair count for the gallons.

Our water situation for the Country does NOT look good.

Best of luck. Sereno

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The amount of water you're consuming for your lawn and gardens seems unsustainable, even without a severe drought to deal with. Have you considered drip irrigation, planting drought-resistant plant species and other such water conservation measures? People who buy water from water trucks in my area pay about one peso per gallon, so almost anything would seem to have a good payback period.

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A 130 acre golf course in Des Moines, IOWA, U.S.A.
July with about 5" of rain still requires irrigation. 731,120 to 1,005,290 gallons per day. That's 6,538 gallons per acre every day. I'm mainly trying to water 3/4 of an acre and using their figures comes to 8.717 per day.

So looking at this from a different angle, I figure that I'm using about 9,600 gallons a day on my 3/4 acre. This pretty much supports what I have figured before just looking at the cisterns for 1/4 acre and calculations of well pressure for the half acre of pastures.

Lots' of over variables to consider: soil, drainage, sun/temps, wind, shade, evaporation rate and how much gets eaten.

We did buy 170 bails of hey yesterday. It took us over a week to find any. 6 hours to get there, load and return using a rented truck. The cost was over double.

Believe me boater. I look at our water situation every day for most of the day and have more areas that I can write off if needed. I have a half acre that I rent and no way can I water so we haul hey to the two animals there. One of the above 1/4 acre has 2 horses on it that I do water with 1 sprinkler that I move every 3 hours. The other areas get as much water as I can supply to bring back the grazing grass, crop rotation.

I also know that I'm better off then many other of our local farmers trying to feed and water their cows. They are very worried and very mad at the water company. I really don't know how to help them with them having several acres of dead vegetation with nothing for the cows to eat. They truck in water for them but that does not feed them.

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Well I see now why you're writing so much about the drought and water problems. Fortunately, I just have four cats and have not yet put in my landscaping on my small (460 sq meters) lot, half covered by my house. I have a few trees and they seem to be doing okay although I rarely water them. Reading your posts, I am going to keep water conservation and sustainable vegetation firmly in mind. I have a 13,000 gallon cistern filled from my roof. This more than meets my modest household needs. I have a plan to catch runoff from my driveway area and store it in a couple of large plastic tanks (tinacos) usually used on roofs. I certainly hope global warming is caused by human activity because then we may have a chance to avoid some of its effects. A small farmer I was talking to here said he know of five cows that have died recently from the drought in the area between Imbert and Luperon.

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Our home well went bad and could not use. I looked at 1/4 mile from us and know of 20 new wells in the last couple of months. I'm told that I'm way low in my count. With so many new wells drawing we have a major contamination situation from ocean and septic system intrusion.

Again... we adjust.

New 500 gpd RO system. We moved some things around to get the best out of it and so far we are very happy with over the 500 gpd. Home, apts. and animals here have clean water. A slight surplus to keep the pools filled. Not enough for much watering of gardens/lawns though we are using the waste water in a drip irrigation system.

The drought deepens and IMO is going to get much worse. S.D. and Santiago are just NOW really getting serious ???? about water restrictions? But really they do nothing of any value other then their great water rotation plan and............... cutting off water to our food supply. DAHHHHH?

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this reply is in response to anyone splicing electrical wires if they are in a location difficult to get to later such as underground or buried in a wall. don't rely on twisting them together and using caps or electrical tape. always solder them, wrap them with a good insulating tape and then shrink tubing. also, if your wires are in a conduit make sure the conduit does not have any 90 degree joints, if they do, when it comes time to replace the wires you will have a hell of a time pulling the wires through. if you are around in 20 years and replace or repair the wires you will thank me then even though I won't be around. we all die eventually. thankfully I am not a believer, hate to think I might come back as a snake, earth worm, etc.

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