Sources of Water Supply

Art. 3-12]
49
easily find their way into the well as the extent of percolation is limited
as the nearest aquifer to the ground is tapped.
The main source of contamination is the effluent from nearby septic
tanks, soak wells, etc. It is therefore desirable to construct shallow wells
away from such possible sources of contamination, It may also be noted
that the shallow well water is notoriously liable to intermittent pollution
and hence, the samples of water should always be collected after heavy
rainfall,when marked deterioration in purity may be revealed.
Use of shallow wells: Looking to the uncertain supply of water and bad
quality of water, the shallow wells are used as source of water supply for
small villages, undeveloped municipal towns, isolated buildings, camps, etc.
(iv)
(2) Deep wells: The deep wells obtain their quota of water from an aquifer
below an impervious layer as shown in fig. 3-19. The theory of deep well is based
on the travel of water from the outcrop to the site of deep well. The outcrop is
the
place where aquifer is exposed to the atmosphere as shown in fig. 3-19.
The horizontal distance between the deep well and the exposed width of
outcrop of the aquifer may be very high. Hence, local impurities may not find
their way into the well. An impervious layer above, act as a cap, and so other
local
conditions like heavy rain or hot radiation during summer may not influence the
yield of a well. The entry of rain water takes place at outcrop and it reaches the
site of deep well. During travel, the water gets thoroughly purified. But it
dissolves
certain salts and may therefore become hard. In such cases, some treatment would
be necessary to remove the hardness of water.
Deep
well
P
Outcrop
P
P-Pervious layer
I- Impervious layer
Deep well
FIG. 3-19
The depth of deep well should be decided in such a way that the location of
outcrop is not very near to the site of well. The water of deep wells is contained
in lower embedded aquifers and hence, it is always available at a pressure greater
than the atmospheric pressure. The deep wells are therefore referred to as the
pressure wells
deep well having a diameter of about 50 mm
(3) Tube wells: A tube well is a
to 200 mm and it obtains its quota of water from a number of aquifers as shown
in fig. 3-20. The blind pipes are placed against the impervious layers
(i)
Construction of tube wells:
(a) A bore is drilled in the ground and information regarding various
layers of soil is obtained. The diameter of bore is kept larger than
that of tube well. For instance, if the diameter of tube well is 150 mm,
the diameter of bore may be kept as 300 mm.