Building waterponds with a road grader.

The purpose of waterponding is to slow water flow down and give it an opportunity to soak into the soil ─ plants can only utilise rainfall when it becomes available as soil moisture.

A successful waterponding project involves four steps:
1) Planning,
2) Surveying,
3) Building, and
4) Management post construction.

It costs approximately $225 to waterpond one hectare (includes construction and survey) and this investment can be easily lost if ponds are not built to specification. For example, building past the survey end results in an increased depth of water been ponded and often results in a breakage, draining the pond of water.

Conversely, ponds built to specification can have a lifespan of 20 years with little maintenance.