Dragons in the pipework

A few years ago, the entire village looked like a war zone, when all the water conduits in every street, road and winding lane were excavated in the quest to deliver a substantial water supply to the community. ‘Cal’ deposits were the common cause of the problem, coating and crusting interior supply pipes with calcium, which in turn, reduced water pressure into most homes to a pathetic drizzle.
Currently with a massive work in progress, the local water pipes are once again causing service problems, and involves regular, and crucial cuts, which in turn swallow air into the system – hence the dragons in our pipes! Who would have thought that in 2023, the guaranteed supply of a basic necessity like water, could still be causing major problems!

When we first moved to Mallorca over 18 years ago, we built our own house. Living in the heart of the countryside with no mains water supply from the town available at that time, it was suggested we explore the possibility of sinking our own well, or ‘pozo’ (pronounced potho). Having water delivered on a regular basis is a common practice here in Mallorca, and not half as daunting as it might first sound. But having your own ‘pozo’ is always considered a necessity over a luxury, so we were already invested on the side of common sense.

Once the official license for a ‘pozo’ had been applied for, approved and stamped, a fee was handed over and an expert arrived to decide on the best site for our well. We kind of expected this ‘expert’ to turn up with some state-of-the-art divining device, perhaps wearing a space age back-pack with electrodes and lightning rods tuned to detect subterranean streams.

In reality, the expert who eventually graced us with his presence looked more like a local shepherd. And he was carrying two willow sticks in front of him, like conductor’s batons, wandering the land like a lost soul, searching for something to conduct. “He’s waiting for the sticks to tremble uncontrollably before crossing over each other,” whispered the glamorous assistant, which remarkably, after about half an hour of wandering, they did!

X marked the spot. And thankfully it wasn’t too far from the house; not that we envisaged traipsing to the well every five minutes to draw water from a bucket on a rope like Jack and Jill. A modern ‘pozo’ only requires a relatively small bore sinking, with a pump attached to deliver an endless feed of natural water into a ‘deposito’ (water tank).

It’s worth mentioning when sinking a well, that you pay per metre for depth drilled, and we were anticipating, on the professional intelligence of Señor Pozo, to strike water at a depth of around 20 – 25 metres.

As the drilling rods were fitted and lowered into the well site, our hearts began to sink along with the equipment. And we started wondering if our ‘pozo’ would indeed be surfacing in Mallorca or Australia! We finally hit H2O at a costly 120 metres. “I told you there was water down there,” gushed Señor Pozo, overjoyed with his subterranean success at the centre of the Earth. Perhaps his divining rods weren’t so accurate after all, as we were rather hoping for something a little closer to the surface. But hey ho! Apparently the deeper the well the purer the water – or so says the legend according to St Perrier.

Sadly, the first two pumps employed in the well didn’t last very long, and needed replacing within weeks of their installation. The final pump incorporated a filter to stop grit from entering and damaging the system.

“Why didn’t you think of that specific ‘mind bomb’ in the first place?” we asked, dumbfounded by the lack of foresight. The ‘pozo’ technician just shrugged, then tried to charge us for three pumps. Even to this day, their brazen faced action still baffles legal logic. Yet try it on they did, and kept insisting that we paid for three pumps until a very official and no-nonsense letter from our serious and no-nonsense solicitor put them right, and silenced them forever.

As foreigners, new to the island, it seemed we were an open target for a spot of innocent extortion. Señor Pozo and his team wouldn’t have dreamed of trying that kind of dishonesty with a fellow Mallorcan. And although successfully resolved, that kind of undermining does leave a bitter taste in your mouth. But anything is better than grit!

All said and done, the source of our water was almost spring quality and totally drinkable, which was a huge saving grace along with a solid result. It wasn’t exactly like showering in Perrier, but at times it felt like that. And having our own spring water literally on tap was awesome. These days we have dragons in our pipes, but at least the water is finally getting through!