With all the rainfall we’ve endured recently, rather than listening to negative visitors bemoaning the inclement weather, I have been reminding myself how important and vital water is to the island’s infrastructure and survival, including the supply outage to the tourist industry! During the long drought of the summer months, Mallorca’s natural reservoirs naturally take a massive hit, with hotels and green golf courses etc. playing a part with their high consumer demands.
Twenty years ago, when we first re-located to the island, we built a house in the heart of the rural countryside. With no water supply from the village, we relied entirely on water being regularly delivered in large, sloshing trucks. We were told that fincas of any note would always endeavour to have their own ‘pozo’ or well, a common prerequisite for any local looking to purchase a country residence; so, without further ado, we decided to sink our own!
Once the official license had been applied for, approved and stamped (you can’t just go drilling holes wherever you want, willy nilly), a substantial fee was handed over, and an ‘expert’ came to decide where our pozo would be. With the Tramuntana mountains literally sitting on our back doorstep, natural veins of water were theoretically coursing their way underground, and these sub-terranean streams would supposedly decide the ultimate spot where drilling would commence.
We expected the said expert to turn up with some state-of-the-art water-divining device, sporting a space age back-pack with electrodes and lightning rods tuned and sparking. However, he who eventually graced us with his presence, looked more like a ruddy-faced farmer, and was carrying two willow sticks which he held out in front of him in quivering anticipation as he wandered the land like a lost soul searching for an orchestra to conduct. After half an hour of divine roaming, the rods actually crossed over. X marks the spot, apparently! And thankfully it wasn’t too far from the house, not that we envisaged drawing water from a bucket on a rope like Jack and Jill fairytale. Oh no, this pozo business is a totally modern affair. Where there’s a well . . . even though it did at one point start to feel like we were drilling for oil.
A pozo only requires a relatively small-bore apparatus, yet it’s worth mentioning that when sinking a well, you pay per metre for depth drilled, and we anticipated striking water at around 20 – 25 metres. As more and more extension rods were fitted to the drilling mechanism, our hearts began to literally sink along with the equipment. It became quite apparent that they were running out of rods without detecting a whiff of the wet stuff! We started wondering if our Mallorcan pozo would surface in the outback of Australia, when we finally hit H2O at around 200 metres!
Señor Pozo was overjoyed with his subterranean discovery at the centre of the Earth. 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 Gospel according to St Perrier!
Sadly, the first two pumps fitted didn’t last very long at all and needed replacing within weeks of installation. The final pump incorporated a special filter to stop grit entering the system which had been causing the previous pumps to fail. We wondered why they didn’t think of that specific ‘mind bomb’ in the first place. Doh! Incidentally, the company installing the pozo tried to charge us for three pumps, until our Mallorcan lawyer friend had a word and silenced them forever. As new foreigners to the island, it seemed we were an easy target for a spot of innocent extortion! Funny how it’s always deemed an innocent misunderstanding when hailed from the ranks of the deceitful! Señor Pozo and his team wouldn’t have dreamed of trying that one on with a fellow Mallorcan as our legal eagle knew only too well.
The grateful upshot was that our water supply was almost mountain spring quality and totally drinkable. Result! It wasn’t exactly like showering in Evian, but at times it certainly felt that way, particularly during the long summer months when water supply to our local village was often cut and rationed in favour of sourcing a constant flow to the demanding tourist resorts. Having our own water literally on tap was awesome, so I’m always grateful and appreciative of a little seasonal rain sprinkling on our island paradise. Sorry if the visitors get a little damp!
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Peter we went through a similar process from truck delivery to pozo but with differences. Many years ago we had a diviner on the land and I noted where he had positive reactions. Later I tried myself with bent copper brazing rods and got the same results, its not rocket science. I guess you must live on the altiplano of Mallorca. 200 mts is by far the deepest domestic water supply I have heard of. I hope your power is wind/solar. Ours is at 60/70 mts and they drilled to 90 for leeway. I totally agree with the quality description , bottled water tastes stale in comparison. Don't forget to have it tested every couple of years, many chemists provide the service.