The Old Arm Pump: Thanks to Cholera

We know little about the water supply in Betekom, and it is almost certain that there was no communal well in the center of the village. After the severe nationwide cholera epidemic of 1866, from which Betekom escaped, the State and the Province insisted on a clean drinking water supply and in 1867 the municipal council decided to build a well with a pump on the village square. Lack of money – despite the subsidies – and other problems meant that it was not until the spring of 1869 that the village had a masonry well of about 10 meters deep and equipped with a simple arm pump. But because the villagers did not have to walk very far to get clean drinking water, the pump was an immediate success. It would take until 1965 before water came out of the tap in Betekom.
In 1988, the pump was thoroughly restored, but when the village center was renovated in 2018, the pump had to make way for traffic. It was moved a few meters and the original well was filled in.

Jan Rymenams