Foraco is a specialist driller of wells for drinking water, irrigation water and industrial water. Foraco undertakes a wide range of projects, including large scale village water drilling programs (some of which have delivered as many as 900 wells per project), highly specialized drilling projects to access mineral water (bottled water industry) utilizing sanitary protection methods, and large diameter well fields for residential supply in urban environments. Foraco has experience in a wide range of techniques used in water well drilling, as well as expertise involved in the inspection, servicing and rehabilitation of existing wells. The Company can offer an integrated package of services to its customers, including turn-key contracts for water production and initial distribution systems in rural or semi-urban areas of developing countries.
Water exploration drilling undertaken by Foraco involves detecting the presence of groundwater and determining its quality and quantity. Foraco has developed its own reverse circulation drilling technique, which enables it to identify the nature of the geological formations encountered, detecting each intersected aquifer and to accurately measure the quality of the water and the potential yields.
This method is suitable up to depths of up to 1,000 metres. Beyond this, (up to 1,500 metres), Foraco uses more conventional methods including rotary, DTH or core boring to achieve the similar objectives. Foraco’s technical expertise means it can equip the wells with pumps, and provide the required instrumentation to understand and manage the resource.
Foraco has drilled approximately 39,300 production water wells in all types of geological formations ranging from 20 metres to 2,000 metres in depth. Depending on the use of the well, Foraco installs a wide range of equipment in the bore holes, from a full polyvinyl chloride (PVC) installation for shallow wells, to 100% steel casing for deeper wells that extend to more than 200 metres in depth. Foraco has developed its own proprietary method of hydraulically fracturing rocks in the production zone of the aquifer to stimulate the well and increase yield.