I am too far from the river, probably 300-400 meters away on a slope. This way is to make sure the river will not reach me during bad weather. The neighbors had already problems before Sedong and more after aboutcity water. I heard making a well was about 1000/foot. I need to find a good reliable system and will ask around how deep their well.
A good reliable system is usually provided by the municipality. Unfortunately the "good" and "reliable" parts seem to be lacking in Valencia. And the water company has more excuses than a filipino late for an appointment. 1000/ft seemed a bit high but it was what my landlord was quoted as well. Give me a shovel and a pick axe and I'll dig holes all day for that price. Sad thing is I don't think that 1000/ft covers the expenses of the pipe/pumps/equipment you will need after the well is drilled. 400-600ft of pipe would likely not come cheap.
I am wondering if a implementation of a good rainwater collection system is something doable using it jointly with the water provided by the municipality. Has anybody seen one in the area or any info ?
All you really need is the standard water tank and to fix some sort of rain catch to the top. Just be careful to have some way to keep the bugs out. An underground water cistern that's capable of catching rain would likely be cheaper than a well in Valencia also. Just buy about 6 shovels and hire some locals for 100 or so a day. They should be able to dig a 15x15ft hole in a couple days as long as you didn't hit any rock. I'm not sure what type of material you would use to make the tank but I think concrete would suffice for the sides and bottom. I would go for some type of limestone or porous rock for the top. Keep access to the tank from the surface available so you can drain and clean it every now and again.
And if you have any of the mooching family members of your significant other's hanging around the possibility of them having to work for money will send them packing. Actually this could be a great thing to procrastinate on. Just draw up the plans, have them laminated and hung in all entry ways to your house and buy the shovels and have their names engraved on them and have them hanging directly besides the plans. Give them 1 peso for every pound of dirt moved. You'll likely never see them again.
If you really need reliability, stay in Cebu. I have 4 internet connections, from 4 different companies. Usually, at least one of them is working. I also have a backup generator and my pcs are each on an UPS. Reliability can be achieved with a lot of redundancy, but it gets expensive.
Cebu is not that great, as in dumaguete, it depends where you live as to what provider works best. Brown outs can be handled I suppose with a laptop and smart stick or similar.
