Along with the farming, we are doing laterite stone cutting for building purpose. By cutting the stone, we have made a pond of size 50 meter x 25 meter x 14 feet depth, in one part of the field and made to collect all the run off water from different channels. The water is collected after the rains (see the first photo), seep out within few days (see the second photo). We are facing the water scarcity problem in summer even nearby well and borewell. We don't want use plastic sheet for the lining purpose, as the danger of leakage when stone or sharp material gets hit with it. We like to plaster this with a cost effective method (without using cement, which is more costlier then digging well or borewell). Calcium bentonite available around 40 kms from our farm.
Will converting it into sodium bentonite be a cheaper solution for lining the pond? We heard about sodium carbonate or sodium silicate along with lateric soil act as good binder and act as waterproof agent ? Please advise regarding this.
The ash of sugar cane leaves or bamboo leaves, mixed with lateric soil, which improves its stabilisation and waterproof capacity, is being used in Nigeria for material used to construct roads. Is it of any use?
My farm is located at Marpally mandel and village, Rangareddy district, Andhra Pradesh, where lateric soil and stone is around us. More than 90% of farmers are doing rain fed crop. I like to give cheaper solution for water conservation to farmer around us, who do not have enough financing capacity for borewell. By cutting the lateric stone in rocky area in the field which is of no use, we can create ponds of them.
Please advise any practical solution to conserve the rainwater economically.
Regards,
L.R.Ramesh