PIPA - Environment
Plastics Industry Pipe Association of Australia Ltd
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PIPA - Environment
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PVC Pressure pipe for Water Saving Projects Mark Heathcote, January 2007 |
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PVC pressure pipes have been the mainstay of water saving projects in the past - 2006 and 2007 continue this tradition. The completion of the Tungamah and Darling Anabranch schemes and the commencement of the massive Wimmera Mallee pipeline project have again seen PVC as the pipeline material of choice for these major rural water saving initiatives. Tungamah in north eastern Victoria saw the completion of a scheme that replaced 520km of inefficient open channels with over 300km of PVC pressure pipe. Over 4,800 Mega litres of water will be saved each year by the scheme eliminating leakage from the old open channel distribution network operating at only 15% efficiency.
The Darling Anabranch in western NSW is a project saving 47 Giga litres of water annually. Historically around 50 Giga litres of water was released each year from the Menindee Lakes to flow down the Anabranch. Only 3 Giga litres of this water was recovered - the rest lost to evaporation and seepage. This scheme saw 320km of PVC-M and PVC-O pressure pipe installed to provide water to over 50 properties along the old Anabranch route. The pipeline extends from Wentworth (on the Murray near Mildura) to Menindee Lakes and a branch that joins the Darling near Pooncarie. The inefficient open channels of the Wimmera Mallee lose a staggering 103 Giga litres of water each year. The 16,000km of open channels are being replaced with nearly 9,000km of pipe with over 8,500km being specified in PVC pressure pipe. Stage one has already been awarded to Mitchell Australasia - the same contractor that has successfully completed both the Tungamah and Darling Anabranch projects. The main pipe supplier to these projects is Iplex Pipelines (www.iplex.com.au). Clearly there is great confidence in the ability of PVC pipe systems to perform long term in these schemes.
Darling Anabranch - PVC-O DN300
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