Dear Imbayyah Alwirfili, ...

Dear Imbayyah Alwirfili,

The decision of the best pipe to use in a water supply network depends on a lot of factors, such as:

- Diameter

- Working pressure and Working flow

- type of lands (mechanical and chemical point of view)

- Operational availability for repairs

- Durability

- Environmental issues

- Reliability

and etc.

You should choose the factors that have the greatest weight in the decision. According with your question, Environmental issues have a high weight, so you must chose accordingly; pipes made of material that is 100% biodegradable  and such a material that doesn't contaminate soils and the water.

If you are considering to use a concrete pipe, most probably we are talking of a water transmission main with a big diameter. For concrete pipes, you have a some choices to consider. LCP, PCCP, BWP, etc. for reliability and Durability you should chose a PCCP Pipe (Prestressed concrete cylinder Pipe).

In terms of maitainence programs, you have a innovative technologie for PCCP pipe monitoring: Without dewatering the system, you can introduce an optical fibre inside the pipe "SoundPrint AFO Pipeline Monitoring" that continuous real-time structural monitoring PCCP pipelines. This is a technology used to detect and locate wire breaks in a PCCP pipe as they occur, wire breaks are the mains indicator that this pipe type will eventually fail.

Assessing the condition of buried infrastructure can be challenging and difficult to predict. Traditional belief dictates the condition of the pipe is directly associated with its age, however extensive field work shows this is not always the case and actually 70% to 90% of the replaced pipe still have remaining useful life.

So for maitanance procudures, you should ponderate a important factor: is this pipe material easy to access in the future? We know that leaks are also a strong indicator of pipe failure, even the smallest ones. Pressure pipes typically do not deteriorate or fail systematically along their full length. Rather, pipe condition is usually related to localized problems. It is known  that more than 90% of pipelines are in good condition leaving less than 4% of requiring renewal. By determining the actual condition of pipelines, utilities can avoid the unnecessary replacement of pipelines with remaining useful life while improving the reliability of their system by avoiding pipe failures and reducing water loss.

If we are considering a big diameter (DN>400), consider Steel, PCCP or Ductile Iron Pipes. These kind of pipes have a strong mechanical resistance, they support  water hammer and highest pressures, with very high secutrity factors.

Ask the pipe manufacturers their opinion, and put all those arguments on the balance of decision, weighing those that are most important to you.

 

Regards,

Marta