Water Storage Pond Lining with LEISTER TWINNY T
Twinny: Enriching lives in India
India being an agricultural country have population of more the 10 million farmers. India has the 10th-largest arable land resources in the world. With 20 agri-climatic regions, all 15 major climates in the world exist in India. Farming in India is mostly dependent on monsoon as irrigation is the common technique widely followed. The Government of India has introduced several projects to assist the agriculture sector. The scheme aims to irrigate the field of every farmer and improving water use efficiency as most of them are dependent on monsoon.
India has been witnessing growing water scarcity over the past several years now. Water-intensive agricultural practices and growing water demand for industrial, energy production and domestic purposes are significantly stressing India’s limited water resource. Dry days (days without rainfall) during the monsoons have increased, from approximately 40 percent to 45 percent in 2015. Farmers are unable to manage their crop cycles due to unavailability of ground water and lesser monsoon spells. This scenario is at the peak particularly in parts of Maharashtra, due to several factors that include unavailability of water resulting in severe droughts leading to drinking water scarcity and agricultural crisis.
Water storage ponds to the rescue
The water storage ponds have come to the rescue of many farmers. To protect the crops, they construct water storage ponds that will supply them with water for the crops for the entire year. Water storage ponds have given hope to deal with this increasing water crisis in the state. Realising the advantages of the farm pond strategy to mitigate drought situations in Maharashtra, the government has come up with various schemes to promote and subsidise the construction of the ponds on a large scale.
Farm ponds are square or rectangular holes made on the earth and geo-membrane sheets are laid over which prevents water from being absorbed into the soil. The standard size of a water storage pond in this part of the country is 44x44 sqm at a depth of 7.2-metre which can hold up to 10 million litres of water. A standard pond will cost the farmer anywhere from INR 50,000 to 75,000 depending on his choice of quality of the material (geo-membrane). There are approximately 15 material manufacturers only in Maharashtra and around 150 to 200 installers who complete the task of welding the geo-membranes.
Leister for welding geo-membranes
Leister Twinny T is used to weld the seam of the geomembrane and the welding must ensure that the material remains totally leak-tight in the long term. The perfectly welded seams make sure that the water stored in the pond can be used when there is a shortage. HDPE is the commonly used material for this application.
The small, easy to handle TWINNY hot air welders adapt to the surface topography perfectly and weld the plastic geomembranes safely and quickly. Twinny can weld up to 3.2 metre per minute allowing the installers to complete the task in no time. It also works perfectly on inclined walls of the pond. Leister Twinny T and hot air guns are helping the fabricators all over India in such projects saving crops.
Like Xerox and Jacuzzi brand names are being used to refer to the category of products, Twinny is a brand name in Maharashtra for automatic welders. It has become synonymous with geo-membrane welding and people from the region ask for “Twinny Machine” when they need an automatic welder. The installers too promote Twinny in their promotion promising the farm pond owners that they use Twinny for welding the seams thus making Twinny the champion in the pond lining application.
In picture: Mr. Gaikwad, an Indian farmer is watching his water storage pond being constructed. His farm located in Satur, Pune is facing water crisis. He decided to construct a water storage pond to support his agriculture farming. The pond will supply him with water throughout the year.
In picture: Mr. Gaikwad’s pond under construction
A picture of Mr. Gaikwad’s farm and the site of the pond next to it
Leister Twinny T was used to weld the seam of the geomembrane at 3 metre per minute and the whole welding process was completed in no time.