Dry season water managemant Thai style?

Hello everyone i'm new at this forum but have been reading the message board on and off for a few years.
Recently my wife bought some land in Pai, Mae Hong Son. this land has a small river next to it but that will dry up in the dry season. On youtube she found something translated into English a waterbank.
I had a few questions about it. why do they use plastic bottle filled with water? won't this disintegrate overtime and pollute the water? same for the car tyres.
Is this type specific for a type of soil? clay or sand for example.

Link to the youtube clip; https://youtu.be/ZSd8Daq-LMo

the water will only be used for the garden for the house we will be drilling a deep well in a few years

English is not my first language so there will be some spelling mistake's!

In nearly 15 years I've never seen one.

The bottles and tyres are not exposed to sunlight, so it will be a very long time before they break down. Plastic bottles in landfill can take hundreds of years to break down ! The PVC tube on the other hand might last a few years....
The reason the bottles are partly filled is so that they don’t get crushed under the weight, you need to maintain space between them for the water.
The idea here is basically the same as used in a wicking bed or sub-irrigated planter where space is created under the soil, filled with water and then “wicked” up to the roots of plants above, except they are not planting anything here, bit of a waste IMHO.
Or as in a “dry well” where excess rainfall is directed underground instead of flooding the surface.
If used in a sandy soil the water will drain out fairly quickly, but a clay soil will retain the water and it will fill quickly

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Say what now

why do they use plastic bottle filled with water? same for the car tyres.

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The bottles were just a way to fill in some of the space, presumably to leave some air space there to allow water to percolate down. He used rocks/large stones as well. You don't need to use bottles if you prefer not to.

Presumably the tyres are there to help retain the water and to keep soil out.

He made a rudimentary water bank in the soil using waste materials. You could use other materials if you prefer.

thanks mikenot, plastic bottles filled with water so they don't get crushed under the weight makes sense!, just wondering why not just use rocks? Does anybody here have any experience with these ''water banks'' for example how much water can the hold or what is a good size ''water bank'' to have. I was thinking to make a few next to some big threes. My wife told me that in ''baanok'' Ubon they are used sometimes to let the water drain away quick when there is a lot of rain.

I'm planning to dig the hole +-3m deep and place concrete rings, to keep it from collapsing. and then place the tyres to protect the blue pipe from the weight of the rocks.

I guess they would use bottles because there are millions of them laying around, easy to collect.
You can fill it with anything you like, but if you do use the concrete rings there is no need to fill them at all. Put strong metal mesh over the top of the rings, shade cloth (or best of all, geotextile cloth) over the mesh, then a layer of gravel. Gives you max capacity of water.
Or use second hand 200 litre drums.

The idea of the metal mesh is a very good idea. Maybe I can use it like a filter first ring(bottom) small rocks and the with every ring higher bigger rocks.

My apologies for not keeping this thread updated. I decided to first clear and level my land before making the "water bank" I'll have find out how to post photos here!

I won't be in Thailand for some time(covid and work) year so this idea is on hold, I will update when I start making 1.