Rain Water harvesting, Ground water conservation.

QuestionRain Water harvesting, Ground water conservation.
Sachidananda Rai asked 8 years ago

I would like have a Agricultural Pond of size 200 feet long, 100 feet width and 15 feet depth for rain water harvesting and for ground water conservation. Again in this pond I want to have Fish culture and above the pond I want to install solar panels for power generation which can be supplied to the grid. This will be project as per our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri  Narendra  Modi. I would like to have coments regarding this project and also would like to know advantages and disadvantages .

2 Answers
openagriculture Staff answered 8 years ago

Dear Sir,
Your idea is very good, no questions about it, and technically / theoretically this looks achievable, but practically this has significant limitations regarding the infrastructure and cost required to make this happen in reality. Now lets try to understand your points,

  1. Agriculture Pond – you have mentioned two points here,
    1.1 – Water harvesting – water harvesting is a term where one can store the rain water for later use as and when needed, which in this case can be stored into the pond you mentioned.
    1.2 – Ground water conservation. – this is where you do not store the water in a pond but the rain water can be used to recharge the ground water level.
    So, lets consider you says pond.
    Now we need to calculate the amount required for digging this pond, and initially this will be a huge cost.
  2. Fish Culture – you have mentioned you want to do fisheries into this pond, but also mentioned want to have solar panels on top of this, so we need to understand how both of this coexist with each other in terms of survival of the fish’s and contamination caused to the water by the installation and maintenance of the solar panels and iron infrastructure. please read the “Environmental Impacts” section from report in reuters.
  3. Solar panels & grid – This will require two this, 1. solar panel and necessary grid as we see in ground built solar projects and additional 2. infrastructure for holding those panels on top of water / pond. 
    Currently there are two projects which we can take as reference for this projects,
    1. Canal top solar power project

    Reference Link

    2. Floating solar panels

    Reference Link

As we can see, the practicle implementation of this idea required huge infrastructure, so while we say, the idea is definately good we will need to do through understanding of following points

  • Infrastructure required
  • Investment required
  • Life span of the infrastructure
  • Output from the project
  • return on investment and time for RoI.

to make this project practically successful.
Hope this gives you some information, do share your thoughts on this.
Thanks !

Sachidananda Rai answered 8 years ago

Dear Sir,
1.Infrastructure required : We have enough un used land due to shortage of water.
2.Investment required : Am looking aid from Government .
3. Life span of the infrastructure: Minimum 25 years from the Installation.
4.Output from the project : Need to be calculated depending on the solar panels.
5.return on investment and time for RoI.: To be calculated in detailed project report with proper narration.
 
 
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