Around 130,000 homes in Ireland have water supplied from a private water supply often a borehole well. Thousands more borehole water wells are drilled year to year in Ireland for private household water supplies.
Drilling a borehole for a Water well system involves creating a circular void in the ground in which a pump can be set to pump groundwater back to the surface. This involves drilling through the overburden (unconsolidated ground consisting of clays/gravels/sands etc.) until solid rock is reached. In order to keep this ground open a casing (steel tube) must be applied alongside the drill string.