Water supply - shared pipeOur house is

08/06/2014 - 09:05

Water supply - shared pipe   Our house is on a hill and water is pumped up from below.  The mains water pressure enables a supply to a house just below us - about 200m away.  There is a connection there with an electric pump which then propels the water up to us. The water supply is acordingly shared with them.However sometimes the pump fails or the valve sticks.  But also when the lower house has guests and a significant water draw there is insufficient immediately available water to pump up to us.We are at 540m and the lower house is perhaps 20-25m below us in height.We have a large cistern (approx 2,000 L) at our house attached to a water softener but it still can deplete quite quickly and then the water goes off.Question: do the water companies eg Acqua Fiora have a legal requirement to deliver water to houses?  In short, can they be requested to install a dedicated pipe to us with sufficient water pressure?  And would they charge for this? Any thoughts???

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I would doubt that they have an obligation.   It may depend on whether you are resident in Italy - as if you live there full time you would have more sway with the water company.   If you arent reached by mains pressure on a shared pipe, you wont get it on a individual pipe and will need a 'pompa a pesca' .  Whatever, you will pay for it, not the water company!  But its worth asking.... 

You could add another cistern/tank to the system to give you a bigger 'buffer' whan the pressure drops - this could be the cheapest option. In UK prices range from about £400, but I know my Italian neighbour uses an industrial one he got from a farm

Two thousand litres is a lot of water - I'm wondering what you mean by "quite quickly" in regards to depletion! Anyway, one option you could make enquiries about is to sink your own bore. Even if no one else has done that, it doesn't mean there isn't water around. Even a steady trickle would refil your tank overnight. If the water is deep (40 m, for example), you would pump it up and basically always have full tank.With regard to sharing the municipal water supply - usually there should be a tank with a "divider" at the end of the public pipe, organised so that no one is deprived of water just because one of the users is drawing off a lot. Each division should receive the same amount of incoming water, with mutual overflows so that if one user isn't drawing water off, then the other can make use of it. You would then be in charge of your own pump and valve, and when you don't hear water trickling into your tank, you would go down and check the pump.