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- Spain Water supply in rural Spain
In this article:
- Our water supply
- Better Call Francisco
- Drinking water is cheap in Spain
- Will the well ever run dry?
During lockdown, Hilary and I have been watching different TV series on Netflix, and our latest favourite is Better Call Saul – the prequel to Breaking Bad. I really like the quirky and unexpected ways the plot moves on, and also the slightly shady and highly unusual lawyer, Jimmy McGill – or perhaps I should call him Saul Goodman? Definitely worth a watch! Here in Spain, we don’t have a Saul to call when something’s up, and instead we phone our neighbour when we need help.
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Our water supply
Most places in Spain have mains water, which you can drink and cook with. But where we are, in el campo, we have a well with a pump on our land. On our first trip to Spain after we bought our house five years ago, our neighbour farmer asked if he could use the well water a few times a year to water his olive trees. We agreed straight away, not knowing how much water was held in the well or if we’d ever fall short.
And we’ve never regretted this arrangement, though when there is a period of time without rainfall, we always worry a little that we may not have any water left. But the well is kept locked up and keys to the well padlock are held by our neighbour as well as us, in case access to the pump is needed when we’re not around.
Better Call Francisco
This last week we had a small crisis, because suddenly there was no more water in the taps. We’ve learned not to panic when this happens, and the first thing to do is to press the re-set button on the pump in the well house. Usually that does the trick, but this time … nothing! We tried a few more (fairly random!) buttons on the pump, but nothing seemed to make a difference.
We then realised that the water storage next to the well was also completely empty and felt a rising tide of panic, knowing that in the current heat (32 degrees day-time temperature), we wouldn’t be able to have showers or flush the toilet. Not a very pleasant thought really… So we decided to call our neighbour, who said something about an electrician and maňana, and so we hoped for the best.
By this time it was 8.30pm and a beautiful sultry evening, so we decided to go for a walk to take our mind off showers and loos. It was a gorgeous sunset, and we didn’t get back to our house until it was nearly dark and we saw a car appear on our track. It was our neighbour, together with the electrician!
They’d already looked at the pump and removed a cylindrical item which was faulty (no idea what it was!) and they said they’d be back the following day to install a new one. All that within the space of 75 minutes of our call with him – incredible! They came again the next day at 4pm, in the middle of their siesta. Now, that’s living in Spain in el campo, and that’s one fantastic neighbour!
Drinking water is cheap in Spain
The water from our well is good for cooking and cleaning, but despite changing the filter frequently it is not that lovely clean transparent see-through appearance that you get from mains water. We were told that we could drink it, but have never tried, and instead we buy drinking water from the supermarket. We buy the water in 8 liter bottles for an astonishingly cheap price of 78 cents! Compare that with the price of a small (250cl) bottle of water at a UK airport, for which you pay £2.50… Something isn’t right here!
I always make sure there are plenty of big water bottles around, so we’ll never run out. And three times a week, I decant water from the big 8l. bottles into numerous smaller plastic bottles – a bit of an industry, and there must be a better way of doing this, but it works, and we have a special water fridge to keep it all cold. Occasionally, a bottle of wine or beer may make its way into the water fridge for a bit of variety….
Will the well ever run dry?
Our neighbours tell us that our well is a very deep one and is unlikely to run dry. And certainly this year we’ve had lots of rain during March and April, so I guess we’re good for a while. Not so long ago, we signed a petition to ask the town council to install mains drinking water in our area, but no progress as yet – not surprising really, with only 30 petitioners.
Most people in the villages are on mains water and it’s just those of us who are much further in el campo who rely on wells. And we rely on our neighbour, because when we needed clear water to fill our jacuzzi, he cleaned out the chemicals from his trailer and filled it with mains tap water and delivered it into our hot tub. Better Call Francisco remains our mantra!
10 comments
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Antonella
22 Jul. 2022
Hello… what a saga about the well and very wise to share the use with your neighbour ? If not done yet I suggest to watch Jean de la Florette a French movie based on a dispute over a well between neighbours in the french countryside. Call Saul … I have not watched but I definitely enjoyed Braking bad so I will give it a go, thank you. Thank you for the blog very informative and amusing : we are experiencing a shortage of water in this area : not much rain lately and blazing sun…. it really feel like being in Spain when in the garden! Hola??
Marijke
22 Jul. 2022
Hi Antonella, thank you for your recommendation of Jean de la Florette movie – I have seen it before but a long time ago, and well worth a re-view as we now have a shared well (though I hope without disputes!). I think it’s raining in UK now – good for the garden! Marijke xx
graham ingle
22 Jul. 2022
Hola.why don’t you fit a reverse osmosis system to the well.that is what several people I know have and it makes the well water as good or better than store bought.not sure of cost.any good plumber should be able to do it.cheers graham
EJ Gray
22 Jul. 2022
Not great wasting so much one use plastic. Isn’t there a drinkable alternative
dawn at kyero.com
22 Jul. 2022
Hello Graham, Thank you for this information, it has been passed onto Marijke. The water in their well is brown and not really drinking water, and so the best solution was to buy drinking water from the supermarket and decant that into (continuously recycled) plastic bottles. Marijke and Hilary are looking at the possibility of buying a big water tank and get drinking water delivered in bulk quantity as a good way to reduce the use of plastic. I hope you continue to follow Marijkes’ blog.
Gary Bromage
22 Jul. 2022
I’m planning to move to Spain over the next couple of months. Any helpful tips. I’m looking in southern Spain. Was good to read your article ref your well
dawn at kyero.com
22 Jul. 2022
Hello Gary, Thank you for your message to Marijkes’ blog. You will find lots of information on Kyero.com, in our ‘Resources & Advise’ section:
dawn at kyero.com
22 Jul. 2022
Hello, Thank you for your response to Marijkes’ blog. The water in their well is brown and not really drinking water, and so the best solution was to buy drinking water from the supermarket and decant that into (continuously recycled) plastic bottles. Marijke and Hilary are looking at the possibility of buying a big water tank and get drinking water delivered in bulk quantity as a good way to reduce the use of plastic. I hope you continue to follow Marijkes’ blog.
Marilyn Ward
22 Jul. 2022
Hello Marijke I enjoy reading your tales of life in Spain. We also have a property there and there are always lots of little amusing anecdotes to brighten the day. The one negative thing that I picked up on was the use of the many plastic water bottles. I cringe when I see people loading up their supermarket trolleys with plastic water bottles of every shape and size. There are so many excellent water filters on the market now, surely it would be more convenient to have one of those rather than lugging around such heavy weights and adding more plastic waste to the world. They may be recyclable, but it is much better not to generate the need in the first place. We are on mains water where we live and we just use a Brita filter jug for drinking water. So easy, and you never run out (as long as the mains supply isn’t cut off!). At the end of the day, despite the bottled water being cheap, this is even cheaper. You seem to have quite a following on-line and you could do a lot of good with promoting this. Salud Marilyn
dawn at kyero.com
22 Jul. 2022
Hello Marilyn, Thank you for your response to Marijkes’ blog and your recommendation. Marijke and Hilary are not on mains water. The water in their well is brown and not really drinking water, and so the best solution was to buy drinking water from the supermarket and decant that into (continuously recycled) plastic bottles. Marijke and Hilary are looking at the possibility of buying a big water tank and get drinking water delivered in bulk quantity as a good way to reduce the use of plastic. I hope you continue to follow Marijkes’ blog.
