Water is an essential commodity for life on Earth. Drinking water is supplied to people living in urban areas from the major and minor water supply schemes. Most of those living in rural areas pump water into the overhead tanks from their own wells of at least 1m in diameter. These wells are located close to the households and are not covered to allow sunlight to disinfect water to some extent and to get water aerated by direct contact with air.

Leaves falling into the wells and the clay particles and heavy metals reaching the wells with recharging water settle to the bottoms of those wells. When those leaves decay they release heavy metals and other toxic compounds due to anaerobic conditions at that depth. Also, aerated water from rains will be collected at the upper levels in the water profile in the wells. Therefore, quality of water reduces with increasing depth in the water profile inside the well.
In almost all of those installations water pump is kept at the ground surface level and the intake (foot valve) is lowered to a level few centimeters above the bottom of the well using a rigid pipe. Therefore, people are pumping poor quality water from the bottoms of wells containing toxic compounds and unsettled clay particles, all the time, while good quality water remains untouched near the surface.

In the proposed system of installation, the pump is fixed on a floating flatform and it is covered with a metal sheet to prevent motor from getting wet during rains. The suction line is kept vertical and intake (foot valve) is located only few centimeters below the water surface. A thin circular sheet made of plastic or stainless steel is fixed on the suction line, horizontally, just below the water level to prevent eddies forming. The delivery line consists of a flexible hose. The length of this hose is little higher than half of the maximum water level experienced during the rainy seasons in the history. Rigid section of the delivery line is from the middle of the well to the overhead tank.

The power supply cable is attached to the delivery line using tapes or clips. The assembly is lowered into the well and it is hung using a cable from a limit switch which is normally closed. When the water level drops to a predetermined level, the limit switch is activated and the power supply to the pump motor is disconnected to prevent air getting into the suction line.

Using this method, one can assure good quality drinking water is pumped out from the well, all the time.