Water Deposit risks?

Hi there, 

We are planning a permanent mpove to Spain next year and are in the process of viewing properties. As we wish to based out of town many of the properties which suit us have no mains water, relying on a water deposit instead.

Could anyone point out any health issues this may give rise too (except the obvious re: runnning out of water which I see has been discussed elsewhere on the site)?  I'm concerned about keeping the water clean and the general process of managing the water deposit system.

Is there anything a lay person should look out for?

Thanks in advance for any information.

Cheers  Dan.

HI Dan,

You will find that the majority of homes in rural Spain are not supplied with potable water, even homes that do receive city (potable) water do not receive water to the standard the we were used to in the UK.

Bottled drinking water is very cheap here in Spain compared to northern europe, that is because there is a huge market as most people feel safer drinking bottled as compared to what comes out of your tap, well or deposit.

We live in the campo (countryside), too far from the local town to receive water from the city supply. We do have piped water to our properties which is basically agricultural water, it is reasonable clean but has been tested to contain bacterial contamination and we are generally advised not to drink it.

Some of our neighbours have a domestic reverse osmosis filter fitted into their supply, these RO units do a good job cleaning up the supply to a drinking water tap but do not remove the biological contamination. It is possible to have ultra violet sterilzers or even chlorinate if you know what you are doing, to get rid of any boilogical problems. Or you can just boil the water and cool it before drinking.

On my property, we use bottled water for drinking. the rest of our supply is cleaned up by a very fine throw away sediment filter and two carbon filters, the resulting water is very clean and suitable for general house hold use and drinkable once boiled. We consider this water supply safe as we have treated it this way for more than four years now with no health problems. We also have little to no problems with taps blocking up or water heaters and washing machines.

Mr Kevin,

Thanks so much for your reply, your comments were of great interest.

I do still have a question over the keeping of water for domestic use in a storage tank. The property we are looking to put an offer on has a 12000 litre tank below the house which I have been advised should last approx 8 weeks (there is only 2 of us) from full. In that 8 week period, what stops nasties building up in the supply? Does one introduce chemicals to ensure such things as legionnaires disease doesn’t have the opportunity to develop?

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.

Dan

I own a property with a water tank. I havent done a thing to it and I have never had a problem.

I discovered after buying that my property is ilegal and thats whty it doesnt have a mains water supply. You might want to investigate why it dosnt have mains water. The solicitor I used at the time didnt make it clear to me that it was ilegal. It has been quite stressful for me but Im over the stree bit now. Ivve just acceped that I fell for the trap.

I would prefer mains because it is less hassle, Ive found out that the septic tank I had installed might not be valied even though it is european standard because the town hall might want me to be connected to mains sewerage system.

Good luck.

Hi Alan,

Thanks very much for the info. We have done all the necesasary checks in relation to legality and the property is deemed 'fuera de ordenación' which basically means it was an ilegal build, but has been recatagorised and now lies outside of any threat of fine or demolition. I've heard about and known quite a few folks who are in your situation, and I really hope you manage to resolve the issues. The leagal isues surrounding property sales out there sucks! - The whole system needs a big shake up.

I've been told the waste disposal at the property we are looking at is mains drainage, although I shall be double checking given the situation of the property (very rural). Again, I hope the Town hall see sense and pass your system.

Good luck and thanks again for the info.

Dan

Hi Dan,

I live on an urb where there were regular interuptions in water supply in the summer, so I had a 1,000 litre tank installed to provide a buffer.   Having done so, I tried researching water hygiene on the internet but didn't really find definitive information.

But I've used aqua clean tabs for the past few years - combined with changing the water on each visit and running the system etc to make sure that the pipework is clensed also,  There are several suppliers - just google "aqua clean tabs" - I use a box of 40 tabs each time for my 1,000 litre tank costs about £5.00.   The manufacturer also has a website which you may find helpful.

Several people I know who have depositos do nothing - but for me that's a disaster waiting to happen.

Send me a PM if you would like anything more.

Hi Acer,

Thaks so much. I was surprised too to find so little info out there, even on company websites that supply tanks!

I'll take a browse over the aqua clean tablet site, thanks again.

All the best,

Dan

 Hi Dan

Iive in the campo, I have a water deposit that is filled with irrigation water, every now and then I throw a pool chlorine tablet it to it.

We only use it for washing, and some for cooking after passing it through an under sink filtering sysyem , we buy all our drinking water.

havent had any problems, the only thing I can think of is if there is a power failure the pump wont work.

Ours is fed bu irrigation water , but if you have to have it delivered by truck that could be a pain some times , we use about 1 cubic meter a day for a family of four including watering garden and topping up the pool .

Tony

Hi Tony,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Good advice.

Thanks again.

Dan