Many parts of Australia, and specifically New South Wales, are currently experiencing severe drought conditions. Next week, on 10 December, the Greater Sydney region will move to Level 2 Water Restrictions with dam levels falling to just 45%. These restrictions mean gardens can only be watered before 10am or after 4pm with a watering can or bucket, cars must be washed with a bucket and a permit is required to before filling any swimming pool. Those who break these rules risk fines of $220 for individuals and $550 for businesses.
Usually Level 2 Water Restrictions would come in when dam levels fall below 40%. However, the State Government has taken the measure of implementing these earlier given the seriousness of the situation. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said “Given the rapid rate of decline of our dam levels we have decided to enact the next level of restrictions sooner than planned. We’re experiencing one of the most severe droughts on record and we expect introducing Level 2 restrictions to save 78.5 gigalitres of water per year.
“Given the rapid rate of decline of our dam levels we have decided to enact the next level of restrictions sooner than planned. We’re experiencing one of the most severe droughts on record and we expect introducing Level 2 restrictions to save 78.5 gigalitres of water per year.”
The last time the Greater Sydney region was under water restrictions was a period from October 2003 through to June 2009.
Since 2009, while water restrictions weren’t in place, an initiative called Water Wise has tried to influence long-term water use habits by making suggestions on how small savings can be made by households to be more efficient with their water.
When the 2003 drought hit, a large NSW water utility had leakage in excess of 180 megalitres per day (MLD). Or, if using the pseudo-international leakage measure of representing this with volume with Olympic Sized Swimming Pools (OSSP), it would be 72 OSSPs. Or it’s one hundred nine billion five hundred million (109,500,000,000) bottles of water that you buy from 7-Eleven.
This is a lot of water! Particularly when a region is experiencing drought.
In periods of drought, all stakeholders are more aware of any wastage occurring. Water consumers do not like to be told to save water by not washing their cars or having short showers, only to walk out their front door to see a burst water main spilling thousands of litres per minute over the road. This increased awareness leads to more scrutiny, particularly by the media, and sometimes the Shadow Ministry.
Through collating publicly available information on leakage levels and active leak detection activities, we can see what occurred during the 2003-2009 drought to understand if similar will occur during this drought. As mentioned above, a large NSW water utility had leakage in excess of 180 MLD in 2003 when the drought commenced. By June 30 2010, this had reduced to 99 MLD.
There was no doubt a vast number of initiatives and investments undertaken to reduce the leakage over this period. Specifically, actively finding leaks on the water reticulation network (active leak detection or ALD) increased significantly, when measured by kilometres inspected, during the drought period. This is indicated by the green line in the chart below. Interestingly the level of activity, once again measured by kilometres inspected, dropped after the Level 3 Water Restrictions ended and it subsequently led to an increase in leakage.
Source: The data for the above chart has been collated from publicly available sources.
Unfortunately, I could not find ALD information for the four-year period commencing 2012-13. However, it was noted in 2016-17 that a total of 217,635km of ALD had been undertaken since the program commenced in 1999. Using the other available data, it gives us an average of 8,000 km over those four years.
As we move to Level 2 Restrictions, are we going to see an increase in water loss reduction activities across NSW similar to that observed in 2003-2009 period? Or, is it more a case of understanding if we doing enough to reduce water lost from our networks in periods when we are not in drought?
Has the Economic Level of Leakage changed and influenced the level of investment in the activities over the past decade?
With many global cities moving to advanced smart networks to identify network faults in near real-time (read here about the award winning SA Water Smart Water Network), at what point do smart systems get viewed for their ability to contribute meaningfully towards leakage reduction and not just for customer service benefits such as identification of disruptive bursts?
During decisions about building or expanding desalination plants, do water loss reduction activities get spoken about or are large capital projects always going to be favoured?
As highlighted by this weeks inaugural World Water Loss Day, if global water losses were reduced by just 30%, an additional 800 million people could be supplied with already treated water. Even if particular regions are leading by global standards, the impact we can make collectively is so significant it should not be ignored and we can always do more.
The comments in this article are my own.
Published by Hugh Chapman, Managing Director at Aqua Analytics on 6 December 2019
Pressure transients or ‘water hammers’ are transient events that occur in water pipeline networks as a result of valve opening/closing and pump starting/stopping. Pressure transients can have a severe impact on network performance and efficiency with pipe rupture, throttling, and collapse all occurring as a result of short-term pressure waves through the network. Water utility providers and private companies are seeking urgent solutions to forecast pipeline failure as a means of reducing network disruption and increased operational expenses. Understanding the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of pressure transients means improved maintenance planning and prolonged pipeline performance. Aqua Analytics is a leading smart water network solutions company committed to delivering sustainable pressure transient solutions that mitigate network disruption or failure through advanced network monitoring solutions and insight for network calming.
Pressure transient monitoring plays an essential role in maintaining the longevity and long-term stability of water networks. In many cases, the magnitude of pressure transients experienced in water supply networks during routine operation is far greater than the tolerances for which the networks were originally engineered. The data collected from monitoring pressure transients is used to inform maintenance schedules which can mitigate costly network leaks, cracks, and ruptures. When it comes to water networks, prevention is always better than a cure. Understanding the operating scenarios that can create transients in the systems mean that water professionals can effectively anticipate pressure control and overpressure protection over a predetermined scope of transient scenarios. Proactive network maintenance plays an indispensable role in reducing long-term operational costs and prolonging network life and performance stability.
The demand and stress placed on pipeline systems has evolved rapidly over the preceding decades as networks deviate from expected steady-state operating systems. Traditionally, pipeline systems have been designed with expected steady-state operating conditions with a standard, acceptable deviation factored in to cover emergency situations. Growing demands placed on water supply networks for complex operational tasks have notable impacted wear and degradation on supply networks. In many cases, the demands placed on water networks is far higher than what the networks were originally manufactured to handle and fall outside the scope of expected deviation. The most common incidents that induce pressure transients include valve open/close, pump start/shutdown, and changes in transmission pipeline conditions.
Water hammer is industry terminology that is used interchangeably with pressure transients to describe short-term network pressures that can cause disturbances to the performance and stability of water networks. Water hammers can occur in any pipeline system (from residential to commercial and industrial) where valves or pumps are used to control the flow of water. A water hammer occurs when a shock wave passes down a pipe due to a sudden change in water flowrate. Transient pipeline network pressures do not inherently cause system damage or failure. A lack of awareness and information during pipe failure prediction means that the magnitude of pressure transients is often discounted or undervalued during pipeline failure prediction testing. Understanding acceptable pressure magnitudes mean that smart water professionals can effectively anticipate sustainable operating tolerances and implement preventative maintenance across network vulnerabilities. The complexity of water networks, operating scenarios, and supply networks mean that it is almost impossible to completely avoid water hammer. The goal of pressure transient testing is to quantify and monitor the possible magnitude of water hammers in order to effectively predict pipeline vulnerabilities. Transient testing is designed to identify the location and magnitude of water hammers in order to implement preventative maintenance that can effectively reduce pipeline disturbances and long-term operational costs across a network.
Water network calming refers to the actions taken to effectively analyse, monitor, and mitigate water network events that compromise operational efficiency. Water network calming is the process carried out by water professionals – like Aqua Analytics, to pinpoint pressure transients and implement pre-emptive measures that will prevent water main failures. Network calming means using data to understand pressure increases that have caused past pipe failures and disruption to water supply networks. Cultivating a calm water network effectively reduces network pressure and leaks, increases longevity, and can dramatically reduce common asset failures that lead to costly leaks, cracks, and ruptures.
Ageing water infrastructure is one of the leading causes of damaging pressure transients in water networks. Accurately estimating water pressure loads (steady and transient) is an important step towards avoiding damaging water hammers and reducing the incidence of pipe failure. Pressure transient monitoring solutions from network efficiency experts like Aqua Analytics are an effective way to understand network load limits and implement preventative solutions that increase efficiency and equipment longevity. Ongoing pressure monitoring and reporting at pre-defined intervals makes it possible to create accurate pressure transient readings. Traditional pressure monitoring technologies do not provide the same accuracy and – in many cases – can result in transient events being missed or inaccurately reported. Partnering with a network efficiency company that has access to advanced transient monitoring tools is the only way to accurately measure and report transient network behaviour.
Originally published on 29 October 2021
Several months ago, Yarra Valley Water, one of the largest water corporations in Australia, appointed Aqua Analytics as its consultant to deliver active leak detection services for the corporation’s water distribution area. Both organisations entered a three-year contract with an option to extend for a further two years subject to satisfactory performance and results.
Yarra Valley Water has long focused on proactively, efficiently and effectively identifying and rectifying leaks in its network as soon as possible to minimise water loss. This project will see Aqua Analytics continue to identify leaks throughout the Yarra Valley Water distribution areas that cover 4,000 square kilometres and assets that consist of over 10,000 kilometres of water mains. If any asset defects are identified, Aqua Analytics will report these via a customised field asset management system that integrates with Yarra Valley Water’s ERP solution, enabling prompt repair and reducing leak run-times.
The scope consists of both planned and reactive works based on real-time network intelligence such as minimum night flow indicators. Aqua Analytics’ team will use a range of acoustic leak detection equipment and sensors to achieve the project objectives and offer a range of innovative solutions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of field activities.
Commenting on the new project, Hugh Chapman, Managing Director of Aqua Analytics says, “We are excited to partner with Yarra Valley Water over the coming years to help them further reduce their non-revenue water. Yarra Valley Water is deeply committed to creating a sustainable future for its customers and our team shares this vision.”
Every day, more than 2 million people – around 30% of Victoria’s population and 58,000 businesses rely on Yarra Valley Water for their water and sanitation services.
The project award coincides with Aqua Analytics opening a new office in Melbourne, its third opening in the last 12 months and now having a direct local presence in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria to better serve its customers’ water network management needs. For office locations please visit our contact page.
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