Surface treatment for rain water harvesting catchments by natural materials

摘要

The invention relates to improvement of catchment area for ram water harvesting. After investigations on locally available desert soil i.e., dune sand, it is found that in presence of bentonite, permeability of dune sand is considerably reduced and its mixture becomes impermeable after addition of 8 to 12% of bentonite. A layer of this impermeable material 50 to 75 mm thickness, maintaing maximum dry density 1.75 g/cc to 1.88 g/cc and optimum moisture content 13,0 % to 16.0 %, improves the catchment surface. This material is used for surface treatment, results in better runoff as compared to traditional method of preparing rain water harvesting catchment with murum. Site investigation confirms the utility of this material for surface treatment by reducing infiltration and permeability in the areas having low rainfall and desert soil i.e., dune sand.