I previously wrote on your need to work toward some measure of water self sufficiency at your home or small rural homestead.  You may have an opportunity or two to passively recover some water, and you can read the previous article here @ Working Towards Self Sufficiency-Water (part one)

But there are times when this is not going to be an option and this is where water must be obtained through active means such as with pumps.  Well pumps are used to pull water up from underground or from a place on the surface some distance away from where you may need it.  Some agricultural wells, with the right pump, can process several thousand gallons of water in a short amount of time to irrigate row crops, orchards, or sprinklers for large fields of alfalfa.  A self sufficient individual may have to pump some of their water so here are some choices that you might consider.

Many readers are fortunate enough to have a little land which they will have to provide water for and so some of the larger pump systems will be what they need.  Our own well pumps about 1,000 gallons per minute allowing us to fill our 30,000 gallon cistern in about 30 minutes.  It is important that we are able to fill our cistern as we do not have city water and we must provide for our household needs and our fruit trees.  The well itself sits about one mile away from our front door (and I believe that it is only about 100 feet deep) and has to use a "booster" pump to get up enough pressure to raise the water up about 450 feet to run into our cistern.  At this point our submersible pump, in the cistern, pumps the water into the pressure tank which then pressurizes the water to about 60psi to get it up the hill (about 150 feet up) to where it will deliver about 40 psi to the main system.  You have to keep a pressure tank in any system which is not pressurized by hydrostatic pressure or else you will burn out your submersible pump as it will have to constantly run just to keep your system pressure up.  This fact was demonstrated by the previous owners of this property; when we first moved in here we found about six burnt out pumps buried under weeds around the cistern.

There are other situations that you may find yourself in such as having a fair amount of relatively clean surface water which will be used mostly for ag water and livestock.  This would involve floating a strainer under water and slowly pumping it uphill to a tank where it can pressurize your water system by hydrostatic pressure.  This is a can be a low cost and low tech way to solve a big problem.  Of course there are now low pressure solar powered pumps which can be sunk down into a well shaft and then pumping drinking water (get it tested first!) at low pressure up to a water storage tank.

Do not forget about the old style windmills, many of which still dot the landscape here in the West, which raises water up for livestock tanks and ponds.

  The squeak and whine that accompany the operation of these old units always makes me think of the men who came here before me.  Those men who, while squinting through dust and sweat, cut their hands on barbed wire to contain their stock.  I am reminded of those young men that raised blisters on their hands digging wells to water their families, crops, and stock.  I stand there looking at the old windmill and feel self sufficient.

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