--- title: "Holding Every Drop: How Ocean HDPE Liner 500 Micron Sealed the Pond Project at Navi Mumbai" date: 2026-07-15 author: "Sales Team" url: https://oceangeosynthetics.com/hdpe-liner-500-micron-for-pond-lining/ --- July 15, 2026 | [Case Studies](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/category/case-studies/), [HDPE Liners](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/category/hdpe-liners/) # Holding Every Drop: How Ocean HDPE Liner 500 Micron Sealed the Pond Project at Navi Mumbai ## Project snapshot A pond near Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, had to store water reliably on soft, variable, made-up ground without losing it into the soil below. The design team specified an engineered [geomembrane](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/products/ocean-geomembrane/) in place of a clay or masonry lining, and Ocean Non Wovens supplied **18,900 square metres of Ocean [HDPE Liner](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/products/ocean-geomembrane/high-density-polyethylene-sheets-hdpe/) in the 500 micron grade** for the containment works. This case study covers why a geomembrane suited the site, what the liner does on it, and what an installation like this depends on. - **Location:** Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra - **Application:** Water storage pond lining - **Product:** Ocean HDPE Liner, 500 micron (0.5 mm) - **Quantity:** 18,900 sq m ## Why ponds are now lined with geomembranes For most of the last century, ponds were sealed with compacted clay, brick or concrete. Those methods still have their place, but none of them is fully impermeable, and all of them crack, open at joints or seep slowly over time. Where stored water is scarce and every litre is paid for, that slow loss adds up. A polymeric geomembrane gives a continuous barrier with a known, tested performance that can be laid quickly over most prepared subgrades. [Geosynthetics](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/category/geosynthetics/) of this kind are now covered by published specifications from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Geosynthetic Institute (GSI). ## What Ocean HDPE Liner is and how it works An HDPE liner is a continuous sheet of high-density polyethylene made to a controlled thickness: here 500 micron, or half a millimetre. It does not carry load or confine aggregate. Its job is to be a barrier. Densely packed, partly crystalline polymer chains give the sheet a permeability so low that, in practice, water does not pass through intact material. Panels are rolled out over the prepared surface and fused with heat, usually by hot-wedge welding, so a properly made seam is as watertight as the sheet itself. The welded panels form one membrane that holds the stored water off the ground. A compacted clay liner slows water through soil resistance; the geomembrane stops it with a physical barrier. In India, HDPE lining geomembranes are specified under IS 16352:2020 (Geosynthetics: HDPE geomembranes for lining), which covers smooth sheets from 0.50 mm upward. Internationally, GRI-GM13 from the Geosynthetic Institute sets test methods and properties for HDPE geomembranes from 0.75 mm upward, so a 500 micron sheet is judged against the IS 16352 grade rather than GM13. ## Why HDPE was chosen over clay or concrete Each conventional option carried a penalty on this site. A compacted clay liner would have needed large volumes of low-permeability soil, heavy earthmoving and more space, and it would still seep. Concrete or masonry is durable but brittle: on variable reclaimed ground it cracks at joints and settlement points, and every crack becomes a leak that is hard to locate and costly to repair. The geomembrane removed the seepage problem and added almost no dead weight to soft ground. It went in faster than a poured lining, flexes with minor ground movement instead of cracking, and needs a fraction of the imported material. ## Site conditions at Navi Mumbai A water-retaining structure on developing coastal land brings several problems together: - **Subgrade:** soft and variable, with uneven support and a puncture risk from stones or sharp fill. - **Seepage:** the main threat, since leakage wastes stored water and can weaken the embankments. - **Uplift:** groundwater and trapped gas can push the liner up when the pond is drawn down. - **Differential settlement:** likely on variable ground, and a rigid lining would not survive it. - **Side slopes:** exposed to erosion and scour. - **Programme:** the works had a strict timeline that could not come at the cost of watertightness. ## What the 500 micron liner does on site The liner’s main contribution is **seepage control**. A continuous barrier stops the downward loss of stored water and keeps the pond isolated from the ground beneath. On the embankments it gives **slope protection** and [erosion control](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/solution/erosion-control/), covering the face against wave action and scour. Because it is flexible, it takes up minor ground movement and settlement by stretching rather than cracking, and HDPE’s chemical resistance means dissolved salts in the water do not degrade it. Three properties explain this behaviour: - **Impermeability:** the density and crystallinity of HDPE make seepage through an intact sheet negligible. - **Hydrostatic containment:** correctly anchored, the membrane holds the head of the stored water without moving. - **Strain accommodation:** HDPE elongates a long way before it breaks, so it absorbs settlement and thermal movement. Thickness is a balance between puncture resistance and flexibility. A 500 micron sheet is light and easy to handle, but it is less forgiving of a poor subgrade than a 1 mm or 1.5 mm sheet, which is why surface preparation matters so much on a job like this. ## Installation: where liners succeed or fail A geomembrane is only as good as its installation. The points that decide the result: - **Subgrade preparation:** a smooth, compacted, stone-free surface. One sharp protrusion can puncture the sheet. Where the base cannot be made clean, a nonwoven geotextile cushion under the liner is the usual remedy. - **Anchor trench:** a perimeter trench locks the liner in place so it cannot slip down the slope or lift. - **Panel layout and welding:** sheets placed to minimise field seams and welded at controlled temperature and speed. - **Wind and ballast:** sandbags or temporary anchoring hold panels down until the liner is secured. - **Thermal slack:** HDPE expands and contracts with temperature, so panels are laid with some slack so the sheet does not go into tension on a cold night. - **Gas venting and drainage:** provision beneath the liner so gas or groundwater cannot lift it. - **Seam testing:** air-pressure testing of dual-track wedge welds and vacuum-box testing of extrusion welds. The usual causes of liner failure are poor subgrade preparation, weak weld control and skipped seam testing, and the installation on this project guarded against all three. ## Long-term performance Containment assets are judged over decades. Ocean’s HDPE is stabilised with carbon black for **UV resistance**. Stress-crack resistance, the property that decides whether polyethylene suffers slow crack growth in service, is measured by the notched constant tensile load test to ASTM D5397. Tensile strength and elongation are measured to ASTM D6693. HDPE is also resistant to the salts and soil chemistry a pond sees. Maintenance needs are low, and a thin, fast-to-install sheet with a long service life usually costs less over its life than a clay or concrete lining. ## Resource and water savings Stopping seepage conserves water, which is the main environmental benefit of any lined pond. Replacing bulk clay or concrete with a thin membrane cuts the material required, and with it the truck movements and embodied carbon of hauling heavy mineral construction to site. Faster placement shortens the construction window, and a long service life means fewer rehabilitation cycles. ## Other uses for HDPE liners The same containment approach is used to line **reservoirs** and **farm ponds**, seal **canals**, form the barrier layers of **landfills** and **[tailings](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/suitable_sectors/power-and-mining/) ponds**, hold water in **aquaculture** and **rainwater harvesting** systems, contain flows in **sewage and effluent treatment** plants and **biogas** digesters, and waterproof **decorative lakes**. See Ocean’s [pond liners](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/products/pond-liner-manufacturers/) and other [case studies](https://oceangeosynthetics.com/case-studies/) for related projects. ## Work with Ocean Non Wovens Ocean Non Wovens manufactures and supplies HDPE liners, geomembranes, geocells, geotextiles and allied geosynthetics for water resources and environmental engineering, defence infrastructure, airports, highways, railways and industrial developments across India. If your project involves seepage control, containment, weak ground or a tight programme, our technical team can help you specify the right grade and supply it at the quantity you need. 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