On the 22nd September, members of our team will be attending the Water Industry Asset Management (WIAM) Conference in Birmingham
The 2022 WIAM Conference is the UK’s only dedicated event bringing senior asset management and capital delivery professionals from water companies together, along with their supply chain. With the industry under immense pressure to optimise assets and reduce leakage, this year’s conference is focused around strategically planning asset resilience and optimising aging infrastructure.
The UK’s aging water infrastructure is a known and recognised challenge, with leaking pipes becoming daily news. In fact, around three million litres of water is lost from leaking pipes every day – the equivalent of 1,182 Olympic size swimming pools. While the industry is turning to technology to detect leaks quicker and faster, we believe that the prevention of leaks will be a powerful ally in helping the industry to meet Ofwat's targets (cutting leakage by around 16% by 2025).
As leaks predominantly occur between joints, connections and fittings of a pressure pipework system, it is absolutely vital that they are manufactured to a high quality and correctly installed, to provide a robust and reliable solution to last the lifetime of the system. For example, our Frialen electrofusion range of fittings have been engineered to provide the highest quality joints for polyethylene pipes, creating a fully homogenous system that network operators can depend on. The unique design of Frialen electrofusion fittings incorporates exposed heating coils to provide consistent heat transfer during fusion and to achieve maximum bonding between the materials.
Another challenge the industry is facing is water quality. With the UK currently facing a housing crisis, the UK Government has pledged to produce around 300,000 homes per year, which includes developing on brownfield land. In fact, the government is expecting that over 60% of all new housing developments will be built on brownfield land, which has the potential to contain contaminants.
As such, it is crucial that housebuilders and developers are using the appropriate systems to provide a protected water supply with longevity. Standard or single-layer pipes are not safe to use on developments built on brownfield land as they are not resistant to the permeation of contaminants and pollutants. Instead, a barrier pipework solution is required, such as our Protecta-Line. The original barrier pipe system, Protecta-Line has been utilised by water companies and housebuilders for over 25 years to safely deliver a clean and safe water supply to homes built on contaminated land, or any site that may have a future contamination concern.
In addition to this, we also need to be developing water resilience; we need to be safely and reliably transporting potable water into homes and businesses around the country. To do this, we must specify high-performance pipe systems, such as our GPS PE Blue pipework offering, as well as compression fittings and slim flanges which not only improve installation efficiency but will also help to create a strong and dependable potable water network.
If you’re visiting the WIAM Conference later this month, our team will be on hand to discuss all our products mentioned above. Register for your space on the conference here.