As extreme weather events put an increasing strain on the network, water utilities can bolster their flood resilience to protect public health, homes and the environment.
The past decade has seen Australia experience record-breaking extreme weather events, which have in turn had severe impacts on communities. These events are expected to become even more frequent in the next ten years, increasing the danger to the health and wellbeing of communities and ecosystems.
Stormwater and sewer systems are essential parts of urban infrastructure that manage rainfall, runoff and sewage in order to protect communities and assets above ground.
While the weather is of course beyond the sector’s influence, controllable factors such as poor maintenance can increase the likelihood of failure, making it crucial that asset managers ensure stormwater and sewage systems are resilient enough to protect communities and environments.
Failure occurs when excess water enters the system and overwhelms its capacity, leading to backups and overflows. This can cause several challenges, including increased operational costs, risks to public health and the environmental, and dissatisfaction within communities.
Preventing asset failure
The lifetime of sewer and stormwater assets can vary by decades depending on a variety of factors, including materials used, local conditions, level of usage and, most importantly, how they are maintained. There are two primary types of maintenance: preventive and reactive.
Preventive maintenance involves routine upkeep of assets, focusing on detecting and preventing equipment failures before they can occur, whereas reactive maintenance only responds to failures after the fact.
While reactive maintenance might seem like the financially superior option in the short term, a lack of preventive maintenance tends to result in accelerated asset deterioration, and when systems fail the repairs can be costly. Over time, these costly repairs can exceed the expense of regular preventive maintenance routines.
Without a proactive maintenance plan, minor issues can quickly cascade into more serious problems. As the threat of floods grows, asset owners need to have a comprehensive understanding of the state of their systems to be able to make informed decisions and prepare.
Getting maintenance right
When it comes to preventive maintenance, Enviroline is one of Australia’s leading specialists in water jetting equipment, trucks and trailers, and other pipe maintenance solutions.
The team at Enviroline have been tailoring solutions to the unique needs of councils and utilities for more than five decades, and the company offers a range of products to support a proactive maintenance approach, which helps avoid costly repairs, and minimises disruption to communities.
For example, Enviroline’s CCTV pipe inspection cameras enable thorough examination of pipelines to identify potential issues before they escalate into major failures. In the event of blockages, utilities can then harness Enviroline’s water jetting trucks, which provide high-pressure cleaning capabilities, allowing for thorough removal of debris and blockages.
Although investing in high-quality maintenance equipment brings upfront costs for utilities, it helps ensure the resilience and reliability of water infrastructure, offering long-term cost savings while ensuring the safety of communities.
Featured image: Alex Cimbal/shutterstock.com.
