Deposit water

Water tanks or "water deposits" as they are commonly called in Spain are simply reservoirs that store large quantities of water for domestic use. Here in Brazil they are everywhere called "caixa d'água" or water box.

What is really important is not the water deposit itself, but what the source of the water is. It can be from municipal water supplies piped to the homes, in which case the water deposit is simply a storage system that guarantees that you'll have a supply of water if the water from the street is interupted. This is one of the most common in Brazil, but I don't know about Spain.

The other type of water deposit is one with a source from wells drilled into the water table. These are what I understand most of the rural areas of Spain have. The ground water in Spain is heavily contaminated with sulphate, borate, chloride and bromide salts. It's unlikely that you would be able to treat it sufficiently to make it drinkable without astronomical expense being involved. Well water will in most cases leave dirt and other deposits on the inside of pipes, shower heads, faucet screens, etc. which will become plugged up if not cleaned frequently.

A third type of water deposit commonly called a cistern is filled with potable water that is brought in by tanker trucks where water mains do not exist. Here since there is no other outside water source and you start off with potable water then your only concern is simple chlorination and filtration keeps it safe for drinking.

In all cases these "tanks" can be either below ground or above ground. Here in Brazil the water boxes are above ground, usually on the roof or in the attic space. Water from the street has sufficient pressure to fill the tanks in homes, but may need to be pumped in very tall buildings. Your tap water is essentially what comes from the street after simply passing through the water box. The whole system for above ground tanks operates solely on gravity from the tank to the taps or other water outlets. Here you simply need to know if tap water is drinkable where you live or if it must be filtered first or it is not drinkable and you thus must use an alternate source of drinking water (bottled water).

If you've got no other outside source and are having potable water trucked in to fill the tank then it will remain drinkable with normal precautions.

In all cases for underground tanks you will need to pump the water, either to an above ground tank from which it is then gravity fed to the outlets or you need to have "on-demand" pumping directly to the outlets. These are traditionally going to add greatly to your electric bill.

I hope this helps you, now all you need to do is find out exactly what your water source is.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward – Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team