Water Quality in Thailand

[Windknot]

Thinking of north central Thailand, around Korat. Assuming I am not in a city and not near any farmland where animals are raised in great numbers, what are the issues I am going to face, in order to get potable water, at least to the kitchen? Does all Thai ground water contain e-coli and typhus bacteria (like Mexico)??? I would really like to have a refrigerator with an ice-maker/cold water dispenser in it.

Assuming the worst, I have already been to home supply stores, looking at purification systems. I am leaning toward the UV systems, since RO (reverse osmosis) is so slow....and wasteful, if provision is not made to return the cistern/tank somehow.

How easy would it be to have water testing done in the Korat area?

[DrAndy]

Are you going to put in a borehole?

The quality of the water depends on how deep and the local geology

I doubt it contains any e-coli or Typhus unless you are taking surface water

Testing can be done in Korat

you may find it easier to use the borehole for everything except drinking, and buy big bottles of drinking water

or splash out on a sophisticated filtration system

[Windknot]

Are you going to put in a borehole?

By that you mean a test hole for depth and water quality? Probably not, unless I cannot find other test results in the area or someone in the know. I already know that a filtration and softening system are in order. Price at one store was 31,000 baht.

But if other than that, the water would be drinkable, I'd be in seventh heaven, just to not have to sanitize. UV bulbs burn out and depending on "when", may pollute the all or part of the storage system. As said before, RO is inefficient and very slow.

I have to say that I am not encouraged, judging by the depth of the water table at my girlfriend's farm. She has dug a pond and is just waiting for the rains to fill it. But it already has water in it, and this is not rainwater and the pond is maybe 4 meters deep. To boot, this area is a little higher in elevation than the lowlands surrounding Korat (however, that doesn't necessarily mean anything)

[DrAndy]

I meant are you going to drill down for your water supply

the water table height you mention is of no concern as that will be polluted by runoff etc

if you drill to an aquifer deeper down, seal your well bore, then you should get good water

you can then install some filtration in the kitchen to make it drinkable

[Makmak456]

At 7B for the 20 L drinking water bottles delivered in my small Ban. Then buy
the electric chiller/dispenser...........
Much cheaper than what you planning