#25 Can we get running water on our land?

Hey, welcome to a new Project Camp update. So we bought this big piece of land and are prototyping a more sustainable way of living. Not sure how it's going to go, but let's see. And in the previous video you could see us hooking up electricity, which is quite an important piece of infrastructure to set up our land. And in today's video we're going to look into our water, because up until now we've always been using jerrycans, which we refill here in this local little water tap, which is great. But temperatures are rising, more people are coming, so this is getting quite difficult to achieve, and it's also just a short-term solution, so we're going to look into something more proper in this video to see what our water options are. And first we're going to explore the borehole, and we're going to look for a water tank to store the water we're going to pump up. I think this is also the fastest water tap in the world. We're going to check out a water tank for our borehole system, and this guy is selling some second-hand metal ones. Let's see. So it got suddenly quite rainy and we went into his office, a little wooden box in the corner of his workspace, the place to discuss business. Now he was actually more making funny drawings of a water tank, and this guy buys old tanks and refurbishes them into his workspace. So he went over some details, like which material and size he recommends and how to install it. And the first thing he mentioned is deciding on a size, and he suggested to go big. So this is a 20,000 liter tank, it's big. Alright, so this man has a lot of water tanks, kind of a funny setting, in this whole landscape he has tanks everywhere. So for a water tank you basically have a few options. The cheapest one is a plastic one, or a PVC, but obviously it doesn't last as long, it's not super nice for the environment. And he also had a funny story that the other day he had a hunter that shot it, and there was a hole in the water tank, so it's not a fan. Then you also have metal tanks, which are great, very robust and durable, but for drinking water not really ideal. The very cool ones are from stainless, which obviously last longer, they don't rust, more expensive. But he has a few cool ones that are from old breweries, where they make wine and store it. So he buys them, cleans them up, and then he turns them into water tanks. And this one right here is a 16,000 liter, which seems a good size for us. It's probably too big, for sure in the beginning when we're not with many people yet. However, it's also super good for us to have a surplus of water, because it's kind of a fire area where we are. So having water in the middle of summer is always kind of a safe backup. And he actually has a few options of different tanks, and they're different thicknesses. And this one is the thickest one, it's 5 millimeter, it's quite thick. The other ones are 2 millimeters, but this one would last longer, and it also keeps the water nice and cold in the summer times. So he was highly recommending to get this one, but obviously a bit more expensive. And also, logistically, you need a bigger crane and stuff to get it. So we're probably going to go for the 16,000 liter, seems like a good option. And now we still have to figure out how to actually get it on the land, and making sure all the connections and hoses fit. But yeah, it seems like a very cool tank. And this water tank right here was empty and not mounted to the floor, and got blown away by the wind. So now it's there. All right, so now we're back in base camp, and we're going to have a look into where we would actually mount this big water tank on the land. What's a good location for it? So we're thinking of having it uphill, because then we can use gravity to make the water come down. So we would also need to drill the hole there. So we're going to have a walk over the road to see if we can actually access that part of the hill, because in the end, also the truck needs to go there to deliver the water tank and to drill the hole. So let's have a look. So there's actually the top of the hill we have to go. So we could go straight up here, but we actually need to find a path wide enough where the truck can go, which is not there. So we need to walk around quite a bit. And I think on Google Map from satellite view, I saw a little road that you can access it by truck, but no idea how clear it is and how overgrown it is by now. So yeah, we're going to walk a bit around and check it out. So as you can see, the road here is pretty rough, even though a few months ago, they actually smoothened it all up and they put this gravel on top to make sure the shipping containers would come. But by now, some rain has fallen and already broke the road again. Sitting on a hole in the road. I don't know why. This is for you, YouTube. So now we reached the eucalyptus area, where it's really basically a farm full of eucalyptus tree where they're growing them. I'm still kind of impressed, actually, how much you see this in this area of Portugal. Pretty sure at some point we would do a more in-depth video about it. Yeah, we have some pretty close to our land. So here we have the main road and somewhere here should be a side thing. So this should be the road that the truck can access. Might need some clearing up, but let's see if we can go all the way. So we're now at the top of the hill. Got more grassy here for some reason. And our land is right there on that side. And how you can recognize it around here is how they divide the land and see the borders. If you have these markations here. So for instance, this means it's the edge of our land. So now I'm in our land and this is neighbor land. So first we're going to check a little bit where actually the border of our land is. Then we're going to see what would be a good surface area where we could possibly drill and put the water tank. So here we have another markation which goes straight to the other line we just saw. So the land is here and that is neighbor land again. So this is another landmark. It's inside this rock. So this caved out area means it's a landmark. And this is actually how they used to do it before they would put concrete poles into the soil. They used things that were already there like big stones that you don't really move. So the land goes from the pole there to here. And then down there that's the borders of the land. And I think what would actually be a good area is there where it's flat enough to put the water tank. So we're gonna have a look there. I mean it isn't really too exciting to show on this video. But this seems like the place where we have the road right there. So the truck would be able to come. And flat enough to install the pump, the borehole and the water tank. So this area here would then probably need to be cleared out. So all the trucks and machinery can access. And then we could drill and install it right here. So to briefly explain how a borehole works. It's a big truck would come, they drill a hole into the earth depending on where they estimate the water would be. The average drilling in this area is between 60 and 110 meters deep. Because it depends a bit if you're on a hill or in a wet area or in a dry area. So it's just a like 15 centimeter diameter tube going all the way down. From there you would install a pump. So the pump would pump the water from down there up. The pump can use gasoline or you connect it to the grid. In our case we would hook it up to a few solar panels here. So it's autonomous and we can just install it anywhere. From there you would pump the water either straight to where you want to have it. But it's more effective to have a big water tank in between there. Because the water tank makes sure you always have water. Even if it's drier or you need more than you can pump. And it's also good in case backup here in case there's a fire. So we can distribute the water on the land even if electricity would be dead and burned. Up here you can see the view. And back there now it's a bit foggy so I'm not sure if you see it. It's the highest mountain of Portugal. And in the winter you see the snow on there. So it's good for the water tank and has a nice view to look into. Okay so we got quite excited about the borehole. Probably because we love the big tanks from the guy. However we had some second thoughts. Mainly because to set up base camp we wanted to keep things simple. Don't be too invasive to the land. But make sure we take our time to observe before we do big actions. And this became quite a big operation. So time to zoom out and look at our water options. All right so we basically have three options to get water here. One is the borehole. Second is getting water from a spring. Third is to get water from rain collection. The first one well you drill a hole in the earth. You take water from very deep. Put a big water tank and you're good to go. The upsides you have fresh water. You have a big water reservoir high on the land. And probably also pretty clean water because it comes from deep. So no filtering needed. Downsides it's a big operation. In our case it was up the hill. So we still need quite some pipes to go down around 200 meters. The costs are around 6000 for the pump and tubes. 3000 for drilling and 5000 for a water tank. And we're not 100% sure yet which location is the best. Because it depends a bit on where we settle in the future. Second option is we gather water from a well. This is somewhat similar to a borehole. But instead of drilling 60 meters deep. You find an area in the land where the water is closer to the surface. And you could probably here be around four to six meters. And the upside is it's an easier operation. The neighbors recommend this one. And we could do this quite close to the base camp. Downside is the water can be less clean. Because it's not coming from that deep. It's not 100% guaranteed water in dry months. You still need to drill into the earth. So some big machinery is required. And it's not higher than where we are at the base camp. So we need to find a way to pump it. Or use a pressure tank to make sure we have pressure on our tubes. The cost would be around 800 euros to dig the well. And around 5000 for the pump system and filter. And the third option is rainwater collection. I guess this kind of speaks for itself. But you would basically on the surface of the land gather your rainwater. And you find a way to filter it so you can use it. And the upside is there's plenty of rain around here. And it's not invasive at all. You don't need to dig or drill. You just take the water that falls from the sky. The downside is it still requires some filtering. We don't really have any big surfaces yet. So we really need to build a structure to gather all the water. And in dry periods it can be hard to keep your water levels up. Or the water would get very old as it's not flowing or coming in. So these are kind of the options around here. And after a good night's sleep we came up with an idea. Which is to use an old abandoned well right next to us from our neighboring land. Okay so let me show you that well. So here is base camp. Rita is currently filming from on top of the workspace container. Here we have a road. And here we have neighboring land. And right here is a well. I'm standing on top of it right now. So it's actually super close to base camp. Which would be quite an easy way to get water right here. But let's have a closer look at this thing. So I'm now sitting on the top of the lid from the well. So this is just a lid. Here's a hook so you can lift it up if you're strong enough. And what is usually underneath is rings of concrete that are dug into the soil. Until they reach the water level. So if you would open up this lid you should find water on the bottom of it. But generally they keep these things closed to make sure the well stays clean. And we actually noticed there at the end you have an open well. Where the excess water, the overflow from this well flows into. So you can actually take it out. So let's have a look at that. So over here you have the well. And it's a bit hard to see probably with all the bushes. So let me explain. So there's a tunnel right there which goes to the well we just saw. And then the water flows here. And here are two concrete walls. And that makes sure it doesn't collapse. I actually see some water flowing here right now. And then it flows down there to that compartment. Where the water accumulates so you can take it out to use it. And it's actually a good thing that I do see the water flowing. Which means the well is still alive and clean that it provides water. So as you can see the well is pretty overgrown and bushy. But it seems to be usable. But that would also be the first thing we would do. To actually ask the neighbor if we could even use it. Because, well, it's their well. But in exchange we would clean it. And we probably don't really need to clean all of this. But mainly the big well we saw in the beginning. The one close to base camp. Because from that well we would pump the water up. Probably with a pressure tank. To make sure we have enough pressure on all our tubes. Perhaps a filter installed. But before we go into all of that. We first need to check if we can actually use it with the neighbor. And I think generally we do feel better using this well. Because drilling a borehole is kind of invasive to the land. You also need to really decide where you want to put this water tank. And to be honest at this point we're not really sure yet. Because we're still observing the land, researching. Where we would actually build little pieces of infrastructure. And what the water would need to be. So it's already quite a thing to set up the water. That massive tank up there. So this would be in a way a much smoother and less invasive action. Because the thing is already here. It's abandoned. It's nice to clean it up. It's quite next to the base camp. So yeah, this one feels a bit like a smaller scale solution. But in a way good enough for us to get started. All right, so that was it for this video. Thanks for watching. If you want to see what we're going to do next with all the water. Make sure to subscribe. And if you like what we do. Make sure to visit support.projectcamp.com Thanks for watching. See you in the next video. I'm not going to jump in. It's not going to happen.