Now i this may sound like a pipe dream and it may still be, but after some considerable thought, myself and a life long friend have decided to look at at building a 10/20 acre lake here in the United Arab Emirates.
Right now we have an investment of around $200K (to build and stock the lake), but right now we have more questions than answers!
Glaring questions we have are so far:
1. What is the best type of lake to construct for such a hot climate (between 10c - 50c heat)?
2. What depths are we talking about to have the right environment for the stock.
3. Should we go with cement, or geomembrane, or anything else (there is lots of cement and geomembrane manufacturers in the UAE so getting stock is not an issue). Most of the UAE is sand. That said, in the North becomes very rocky and lots of gravel. Would a gravel pit, or a sandpit would be best suited?
4. What type of fish would be best suited. My ideal fish is bass, or trout, but i have fished some excellent lakes in Thailand etc that have big game, including catfish etc.
Their are native fish in the UAE in the northern mountain rivers (
http://www.uaeinteract.com/uaeint_misc/teanh/022fwfi.pdf), but with the scarcity of water, these turn into small ponds in the summer.
5. What would be the running costs to manage this size of lake?
The great thing is labor in the Middle East is cheaper the in NA. Hiring an excavator is also cheaper than most other countries.
That said, i'm not sure whether the $200k would cut the mustard to get the project set up. We are right at the planning stage, so were hopping to get some good advice and plan well.
All help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
