Water quality in the “Moo Baan”
When I bought this house almost 10 years ago, I never imagined that so many problems would arise in the long term, now with the water quality.
After my first bad experience in my first house in Nan, where I had to build a 3000 liter reservoir to get through the dry period, I had other ideas in Chiangmai. It was said at the time of purchase that this water and the quality was very reliable and that I did not have to worry about it.
And yes, we got through the first few years without too many problems. There was regular maintenance, new pumps and the filters were cleaned and replaced. When a number of foreigners asked the owner to continue running this project, I already had my reservations.
The owner was only too happy to accept that offer and so they were relieved of all the trouble. The district committee would take care of it! But that requires money and there was clearly none. The installation was already so outdated that it needed updating. Then there was the idea of making everyone pay to solve this.
I solved it myself and installed a tank with pump with the necessary filters, so that I still had relatively "clean" water. This way I no longer have problems with water supply and pressure. But the filters are also not free and must be replaced monthly and then the cost price of a cubic meter makes this water white gold.
My question to other readers: How is it arranged in other “Moo Baan” if there is no water supply from the government?
I ALWAYS buy bottled water. In the long run it is cheaper and definitely more reliable. Good luck with your problem.
Filtering that water can be solved with a cheap filter and is actually only intended for your shower and washing machine.
Drinking water from large bottles that are sealed for cooking, your cup of coffee and as drinking water.
You can't filter poison that's in the ground!
Cheers drink leotje or chang; now with excuse just like before 😉
Water is only drinkable from bottles or boiled. Water pressure is often a problem. So a tank with a pump and you always have water and sufficient pressure. All that hassle to purify/filter tap water: impossible work. Easier to make box water come.
This is my experience in Chiang Mai. And believe me: leave it to the government? Naaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. It is better to arrange it yourself and certainly not to use filter systems. Tap water is for:
1. shower
2. WC
3. washing machine
4.garden.
and otherwise just bottled water. For consumption.
It will undoubtedly have to do with where you get your water from. And maybe we are lucky here in Maechan, but since we lived here (about 2 years now) we have not bought water in plastic bottles. Our tank with a few filter systems between the tank and our stomach, only gave Maarten the blow job once (discovered in time, no licks). We use it as “boiling” water, for coffee, but also directly from the tap into the stomach and so far we have not had any physical problems with it.
We only use the water for showering and washing
I would never think about drinking water and it is not even suitable for washing lettuce or coffee after I have let it run through the filters.
Also have fish (koi's) and I use filtered water for that.
This is for information to the article.
Chris&Thanaporn Chiangmai
I have been doing water filtration projects in Thailand for many years, most recently for over 44,500 school children & adults in Thailand and Burma.
The choice of a water filter depends entirely on the quality of the unfiltered water and the application. Good luck with 'deep well water' that most communities/Moobaans use, as it usually has too high concentrations of calcium & iron. In rural areas, rainwater is widely used (good quality, but not as good as it used to be) and surface water (always dangerous) and water from shallow wells (idem, eg through insecticides and fertilizers).
For guaranteed safe drinking water (= at all times) only a Reverse Osmosis system really provides - it is 'fool-proof' but the maintenance is quite expensive and the amount of 'reject water' (= water that the system does not use) can increase up to 70%. Not a real problem for drinking water consumption only, but quite expensive for applications for larger consumption and also not socially acceptable, which is why I no longer use RO for schools, for example.
A good alternative is microfiber ultrafiltration. At home I have had a fairly large microfiber filter with automatic backwash (necessary to keep the filter clean) for years, but I would add that the quality of the local city water (Pattaya) is very reasonable - albeit that it is unsafe to use this water. can be used unfiltered as drinking water.
I realize that this is not an answer to the question about Moobaan arrangements. It is more of a reaction to the reactions of others. I don't think there is a Moobaan system without paying.
A German who lives near me and goes on 100% Sicher had a huge filter installation built by a Swiss company. I don't want to know what that costs. But he can shower with drinking water!
He had an old espring filter that he wanted to sell to me. The original price was 26000 Baht. Twenty Six Thousand. So if I paid half for this one, it was still a hefty price. Maintenance of the device (changing filters, etc.) would also cost about 3000 Baht per year.
I have done some calculations and already with maintenance I come to the value of about two bottles of 6 liters per week. We don't use this for a long time.
We live far outside the city and have filled the bottles with rainwater (hopefully it's not too polluted) and we use this for cooking. But apart from that, every few weeks we ordered three large bottles with slightly inferior drinking water.
And I buy the large six liter bottles in Tesco or Macro.
I do understand that purifying water is ultimately better for washing machines and showers if the limescale is removed.
That water does not have to have drinking water quality either.
So we're not going crazy. I occasionally buy the large bottles and we sail well. Will you also come outside…..