We are setting up an alternate school (www.aarohilife.org) on a 5 acre land near (20km) from Hosur. The site is on hill side with essentially rocky thorny terrain. We plan to have the campus of our school off the grid - hence water source selection has to be careful. We have thought of following options.
- Dig borewell at our favourite point (we have identified few) and dig till we find water. Since we plan to be off the grid, this option won't work for us beyond 300 ft. We understand that solar / diesel pumps won't work for depth more than 300 and 150 ft respectively.
- Try borewell and locate a small underground stream where we can install a handpump. Parallel to this, dig an open well at the lowest point of our land. Over a period of time, the well may get ground water as well as be used to collect rain water. The issue is the cost of digging a well and then lining its sides with masonry to make it a viable source of water? Also we're not sure of the depth to which handpump can work. We thought it was around 100-120 ft but, one of the handpump vendors told us it can work upto 240 ft.
- Dig an open well only. If we find some source at 20-25 ft, this is an attractive option. We have heard that there are solar driven pumps which are cheap, work well at these depths and we can setup to avoid batteries. The risk here is we may not find water at 20-25 ft or the streams may not be sufficiently strong for our needs.
Note that our water needs are basic living needs for about 70 people. We won't have any elaborate farming at the land. Do you know some expert who can visit the site and guide us? We are NOT looking for someone to identify a water point. We need someone who has an understanding of the underground water streams and some experience with open well behaviours. We now need a high level guidance. We are looking for a long term, sustainable option which also gels with our plans to be off the grid.