Theo... Just because Rad and I are in the same boat paddling up stream against a bunch of local Yahoo's doesn't mean you don't have to enlighten me on what you meant by waterproofing???
I was trying to see if me understanding of the "Thai way" matches Rad's experience. I have a friend who worked for 7 years in Thailand; he says whenever anything bad happened there, stuff that Westerners would try to prevent through planning or precautions, the Thai response was acceptance because "There's nothing you can do about it - it's just bad luck."
I was not attempting to make light of your pond situation. Sorry.