Water a precious asset

VILLA CENTOFIORI GILI GEDE ISLAND

Water is a precious asset.

For us Westerners the water is a foregone resource, comes out by opening the tap and it never

happens that does not spill abundant and clean. In Italy, where we are from, there are sources

of exquisite mineral water anywhere and is definitely not a problem to obtain it.

In the rest of the world is not always so, and on all coral islands you can only rely on brackish or

desalinated.

Starting to talk about the issue "water

when living on islands”, I always re-

minded of an anecdote that then I tell

the unlucky guy. This is your turn !

One day landed a local boat from one

of the 12 islands in this archipelago in

the southwest of Lombok that for many

years, even before we arrived in this

area back in 1999, was totally convert-

ed into a modest hotel with bungalows

and water they use was brackish.

From the boat went down on our dock

a party of French attracted by our properties

and announced to the video-intercom at the

entrance gate. As our custom, we welcomed

the guests with enthusiasm and we have en-

tertained the whole morning to talk and visit

the property.

Back at the house, one of the ladies asked to

use the bathroom. When she came out from

the dependence where we had made her to

accommodate, she started talking excitedly

with her friend and knowing a little French

reminiscent of studies done, I got the gist that

Watch Publications on http://issuu.com/villa.centofiori/docs

Come for a visit. Call +62 (0)817 368-444 or email me: [email protected].

We will refund your travel expenses if any of what we said is untruth or exaggerated.

http://issuu.com/villa.centofiori/docs

mailto:[email protected]


could be summed up in “ils ont l'eau douce !.” "they have fresh water!."

When she realized that we were impressed by her excitement, she explained that where they

staying on the island, the water for the shower was rather salty and after a few days the skin

had started to itch.

The other lady took courage and asked, "do you mind if we take a shower?" They disappeared

inside the dependence for over an hour and when they left, the dining to which we had invited

them was ready and we spent pleasant hours together until at sunset the sailor of the Resort

that had accompanied them came timidly to ask if it was time to return.

A couple of years later a distinguished Indonesian gentleman with a large following and contain-

ers with food and pizza, buzzed at the gate. It was the owner of island resort where the French

group had been staying. The gentleman was a newly retired Indonesian general manager that

bought this island to live there and manage the resort.

He was told that I had found and implemented a system to have fresh water in abundance, and

its purpose was to obtain the necessary information to be able to bring himself water to his is-

land . To be honest, he had already tried on the basis of the stories about me that had been giv-

en to implement the initiative, but obviously it did not work and the "pizza" was to get me to pro-

vide the necessary details for the implementation of the project. I’m joking... Indonesians never

go other’ home unexpected, with-

out bringing along food for all.

My system should not certainly be

a secret, but the success was

bound to follow certain principles

without which even the first of my

attempts had not been successful.

In the first place it was necessary

to find water on mainland in large

quantities and of course of good

quality. To do this I had to buy the

land at the base of a chain of hills

nearby. Dig until we find water. In

my case I dug a trench 25 meters







long in the open and with an access ramp to the water level. Luckily for me at some point of the

trench, I found a source from where water gushed literally and copiously enough to flood all the

digging. In order to continue, I had to use a pump to keep the bottom of the trench dry enough

to clean and smooth the excavation. In this way, I created a pool 25m long, 1.2m width and 2-

4m in height for a total of 60-120 mᶾ water. I have arranged an immersion pump 1"1/4 1.5HP

capable of pushing the water for more than 2km equal to the distance that separates the source

from the destination. The PVC reinforced pipe enters the sea after about 600m through my gar-

age where if need be I could add another pump thrust. The pipe sinks to the bottom of the chan-

nel to about 30m depth then emerge after 650m, along my dock, get into an underground pipe-

line and continue up the hill 27m high where to pour water into the reservoirs tanks of 3500liters

placed on top a 4m high tower. The surplus with a further pipeline flows into the lake built on

the plateau at the top of the hill.

In practice, if the well-digging trenches required the work of 15 people with tools at least primi-

tive for two months, the

really challenging work

that I had to face was

the laying of the pipe-

line on the bottom of

the channel where a

strong current is acting

twice a day with the in

and outgoing tides. A

first attempt using a set

of 60 iron rods 15mm,

12m long was broken

along with the pipeline

connected to it, stretch-

ing like a chewing gum

pulled at both ends, this

because my helpers

divers believed they could avoid the shore up the pipe with pegs 1.5m long that I had asked to

arrange every 3m. they dropped to the bottom after having fixed only few.

The attempts of my interlocutor have failed for a similar reason, but in his case he used the pre-







cast concrete ducts to weight pipeline that nevertheless it was rolled up like a snake and had

plunged about 4 km of pipe for the total distance of 1.4km and water did not arrive at destina-

tion.

For the second attempt I used 20mm rods, 6m long each and tied together with a robust shack-

le and a stake every 6m using their shackle to lock. This time I joined the divers to check that

everything was done according to what I had predetermined. Once placed this rod line, func-

tioning as anchoring and ballast and anchored it at both ends, it was lowered the pipeline which

has gone to stay in a large U welded on the rods every 3m and with a swivel lid top. Today, af-

ter many years, it all works wonderfully well and the pipeline has almost completely disap-

peared from view having been bury under the sand.

The complex implementation began with the study of the tides to find those moments of "tired"

in which it was not present any current at all for a time long enough to complete the job. The

boats of support, one with the material to a sink and two boats with compressors to supply air to

the divers, in the presence of current would drift leeward without possibility of maintaining a

straight line. Only a couple of times a year we a have favorable conditions to this operation by

ensuring just over an hour to sink 700 meters of rod and the next day the pipeline.

I had previously arranged a robust line with small colored buoys floating between the two piers

of departure and arrival, but partially sunk to not give hindrance to navigation. In this way I was

able to monitor the current going in and out making this floating line curving like a bow. Only

when it was back to a straight line we could start operation and swiftly complete it successfully.

All the inhabitants of the island where I live, occasionally during the dry season that lasts 4-

5months/year remain without water and come to ask for a little more and I grant that indiscrimi-

nately. Actually, in the past I had prepared a line that carried water up to service-entrance gate

so that the near village could draw water. Unfortunately I had to give up because like all things

free of charge was squandered even for washing clothes and other non-essential uses. Even

the authorities are trying to help them by donating systems for rainwater harvesting that invaria-

bly are soon abandoned unusable for lack of maintenance.

Resorts on the small islands off-coast Lombok have the same problem and only the three is-

lands to the north where tourism flourishes, are replenished daily with tank barges. Alternative

systems have always existed, more or less expensive and reliable, but for Villa Centofiori that I

put up for sale I have solved the problem permanently and self-amortizing.






Water a precious asset

Documents

Transcript of Water a precious asset