Awaza water pond

Challenge

Awaza, located at Turkmenbashi, is going to become the touristic attraction point of Asia. Massive construction works in the city lead to shortage of energy. To overcome this challenge Ministry of water resources of Turkmenistan has designed a water pond to accumulate 3 million m3 of fresh water to be used for the hydraulic power station behind the pond. Very dry and hot climate makes water a precious good and prevention of leakage is a crucial factor effecting the efficiency of the water reservoirs in Turkmenistan.

Solution

The traditional construction technology considers using thick clay layers to prevent the leakage of water. This normally leads to long construction periods, complexity of clay layer compaction and not a 100% guaranteed waterproofing. The design therefore consisted of a combination of a geomembrane with a protective nonwoven geotextile. TenCate Polyfelt® TS65 with excellent protection characteristics and UV resistance has been chosen together with a 1,5 mm smooth and textured HDPE geomembrane. This waterproofing system was finally covered by sandy gravel, precast concrete slabs and crushed rock.

Benefits

Compared to clay liners the combination of a geomembrane with TenCate Polyfelt® TS65 proofed to be economic and relative easy to install. TS 65 has sufficient tensile strength and protection efficiency, together with its UV resistance a very long service life is guaranteed.