Construction and testing of the two test ponds was completed successfully during the allocated time. This was despite problems encountered, such as improper dike preparation before the consultant's arrival, slow mobilization by the contractor, poor weather and continuation of work during the holy month of Ramadan. The effect of these factors could have been eliminated or at least minimized by better scheduling and more communication between all the parties involved.
A considerable portion of the construction period was spent installing the protective sand and plastic skirt over the PVC liner. Other lining materials resistant to mechanical and sun damage, such as hypalon, butyl rubber and reinforced PVC, should be considered for any future pond lining work, not only from a consideration of cost but also ease of installation, durability, and maintenance.
Other systems, such as raceways, are envisioned in the master plan and may eventually prove to be as effective or more so than ponds in the Arabian Gulf (Farmer, 1981). A PVC plastic lined raceway system has been designed and tested in Kuwait (Kneale et al., 1982) which is far less expensive than locally constructed concrete structures or imported prefabricated systems. After two years the raceways are still in use and show little sign of deterioration. Although originally designed for shrimp culture, with slight alteration these raceways could be adapted to culturing fish.
