Hi
we have a well at our house which is approx 140 years old;
obviously due to drought in the area, its dropped level to approx 1 m from 6 metres 7 years ago when we moved in.
im looking for a company to suck out the sediment from the bottom and clean.
ive tried septic tank people etc, but they are not interested.
any thoughts ?
we are on border of 34 / 11
What about contacting your local water company to see if they have any ideas or recommendations. After all, it helps their supply if people can use clean water naturally. Whatever you do, don’t go down there yourself and if its like my old well, stoned walls all round which could collapse with touching after such a long time. Mine was 500 years old.
Thanks Shiba
our water is supplied direct from the Maire, so ill make an enquiry there.
I have a fairly small well only about five metres deep. It’s conical, the opening is about 80 cm in diameter but it opens up into a bigger underground structure carved out of the rock. When I bought the house it was simply a hole in the ground covered by a bit of corrugated iron. I built a stone wall around it. It has an everlasting supply of water with a depth of about 40cm.
Many years ago when my children were quite young two of them asked if they could clean out the well. We put the ladder down and they happily spent the afternoon filling buckets and hauling them out. They like it because despite the temperatures of about 40° outside the air in the well was beautifully cool.
My neighbour’s well is significantly deeper. We once cleaned that using the sand filter from an old swimming pool. We agitated the silt and the pump and filter did the rest.
Subaqua silt pumps spring to mind, the kind they use on archaelogical underwater digs, and salvage operations. No idea of cost though.
A lot of pumps can handle debris up to 6mm or so but it would need to be immersed rather than a surface pump as lifting from depth is much harder. I suddenly feel all inadequate as my well is only about 3m 
my surface pump should have been able to lift the silt according to the spec but it couldnt so I used a submersible in the end.
If you climb into the well be aware that the air can be bad in there so take care
I used to have a 7m well in my old house, and never went down it, as I was (1) uncertain of the quality of the stone allegedly holding it up, and (2) uncertain of the air quality down there, and the whole breathing apparatus thing didn’t really appeal to me, for something I didn’t use. As it happened, I had two other more accessible sources of naturally captured water elsewhere on the property, so the well quickly became superfluous to requirements !
Didn’t Charles Dickens make a TV exposé documentary about you? 
There is a postscript to this tale. They had done such a good job that I said, you know when you are in Decathalon and you ask and I say no well next time I will say next. On our next shopping trip I was expecting to be hit hard but after walking around neither child wanted anything. They told me that they had really enjoyed the afternoon. Not only child exploitation but unpaid child exploitation!
Sounds like a business opportunity 
A sort of Well-ness business
yes, but a bit ‘boring’
All’s well that ends well.
The Well of Saint Nobody, by Neil Jordan - lovely book
You need a puisatier 
Sorry can’t help with any companies or ideas as others have mentioned above.
Wells have been used to dump or hide all sorts of thing in the past, from arms, to hiding dead bodies & family fortunes, be on site when the draining & cleaning is being done, could be interesting.
Can I hope for the same from something I’ve been told is a cesspit ? With 2 entrances 10 metres apart one seems to be a well. I’ve been told the other is a cesspit.
Neither has been used for at least 50 years. The one I think is a well has been much refreshed by huge rains in the past 4 years with massive flows. I suspect it would still test even worse than the test we did 30 years ago - polluted by chemical runoff from the huge amounts of agricultural chemicals dumped on nearby lands.
