Eco-drainage pond in non irrigated land for the conservation of land and water based on community participation

Abstract

There are some bad impacts from a critical land such as flood in rainy season and dryness in dry season. Long dryness could cause shortage of water for human consumption, industry and agriculture. Prevention has been made to avoid the both bad impacts by building hydraulic structures like reservoirs and ponds in order to reduce the peak flow during the rainy season and to store the water for use during the dry season. However, they gradually become full of sediment. This will make them work insufficiently and will cause high maintenance cost. Moreover, wells in agriculture field used as retention also suffer dryness to make crop failure. This study aims to develop a model of pond for conservation of land and water in non irrigated land. Community participation is crucial in order to solve the flood and dryness problems. The community, especially the farmers will participate actively in the implementation and maintenance of the model. There are benefits in using the pond model such as: (1) to control sediment transport to the rivers, reservoir or other hydraulic structures; (2) to reduce flood rate; (3) to increase ground water recharge; (4) to contain water for agriculture and (5) to control the fertility of land. The cost of making a unit of model (sedrainpond) of1.5 m diameter and 1.5 meter depth is relatively cheap between $10 to $20 (US), and the maintenance is done by the farmers. When the pond model becomes functional, besides containing water in the rainy season, the water can be used to sustain water for agriculture in the dry season to avoid any crop failure. When the pond becomes dry, the farmers can harvest the suspended load sediment such as clay or silt to spread onto their land to keep its fertility.