Walk for Water Update
Oxfam Trailwalk preparation going well & WaterAid Walk for Water
As some of you may know, Urban Water Solutions’ Managing Director Neil Moody is preparing to complete the Oxfam Trailwalker Challenge on the 29th and 30th March 2019. Teams of four walk 100km to tackle poverty. Neil has been undertaking regular training walks and is feeling good about the walk.
For those that wish to sponsor Neil donations can be made at https://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/my/donate/payment/34425/128570
Below is a picture of MaD2019 on a training walk.
The rest of Urban Water Solutions are not sitting idle either.
Team Urban Water Solutions is undertaking WaterAid’s Walk For Water. Each team member will walk 10,000 steps a day between 18 and 22 March, to raise money to help provide lifesaving safe water to some of the world’s poorest communities.
Donations gratefully received at https://fundraise.wateraid.org.au/fundraisers/Urban-Water-Solutions
UWS proudly supports
Urban Water Solutions proudly supports the following organisations:
- Pacific Water and Wastewater Association (PWWA website)
- Guide Dogs Victoria (Guide Dogs Victoria website)
- Oxfam Trail Walk (Oxfam Trailwalker website)
- Melbourne High Old Boys Football Club (MHSOBFC website)
2018 User Group Presentations
Urban Water Solutions were delighted to share recent project experiences at the Innovyze User Days in November 2018.
Irene Estrada-Subirats and Ann Pugh presented on modelling work undertaken to determine what impact a customer’s internal plumbing will have on their experience of supply pressure.
Using assumptions about different pipe roughnesses and demands it was possible to generate a series of plots showing the potential impacts of a customer’s pipework. The ‘pressure related demand’ function within InfoWorks WS Pro was used to determine the impact that competing demands would have on each other. Examples included the impact of garden watering on showering, and two showers in a double storey house competing for water.
Graduate Engineer, Aidan Sloggett, showed how an InfoWorks ICM model was used to determine the sizing of a dry weather pump at Rotary Park Sewage Pumping Station (SPS) which is estimated to save over 80% of the annual energy costs at this site.
He also demonstrated how Failure Based Assessments can be used to provide operations with information regarding time and location of spill in the event of pump station failure. The presentation also showed how operational controls such as ‘interlocks’ can be developed to optimise the use of SPS storage in minimising spill volumes in the event of pump failure or during wet weather events.
Neil Moody presents at Pacific Water and Waste Association Conference
In early August Urban Water Solutions attended the Pacific Water and Waste Association (PWWA) Conference in New Caledonia.
The conference’s focus this year was on sharing information and experience that will inspire local communities to implement innovative and forward-looking solutions.
Neil Moody presented a well-received paper highlighting the success of a recent project undertaken by UWS in Apia, Samoa, followed by a discussion of the benefits Pressure Sewer Systems (PSS) can bring to coastal communities – particularly around improved public and environmental health, minimised up front capital expense, improved system operations (particularly at the treatment plant and associated pumps) and increased resilience to impacts of climate change.
For more details on this Apia PSS project use the following link (Apia project)
2018 Work Experience
In July 2018 UWS hosted a Year 10 Work Experience student. Liam quickly got to work on MapInfo, creating plans for site works, reviewing CCTV data and analysing pump curves.
Also starting in late June was Tom, our engineering intern. Tom has been learning about hydraulic models, specifically InfoWorks ICM, starting with the collation of raw data and data entry for pressure sewer network design.
From left to right: Irene, Davide, Kim, Liam, Kerry, Tom, Kiara, Brad and Aidan
11 year celebration and office warming
On May the 4th a crowd gathered at Level 1, 8 Gipps Street to celebrate Urban Water Solutions’ eleventh anniversary.
Past employees, colleagues, clients and friends were all welcomed and Neil provided a summary of the past eleven years.
Reminiscences of past office locations, time spent working on projects in Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas, as well as the many varied domestic projects.
Many memories were shared, including the following ‘blasts from the past’.
AWA 2010 Dinner
Movember
Annual Community Volunteering
On the 17th April 2018 Urban Water Solutions employees (and a few friends) volunteered an evening at FareShare kitchens (https://www.fareshare.net.au/) in Abbotsford. We prepared meals for people in need from rescued and donated food. In just under 2 hours over 1000 vegetarian sausage rolls were made and baked and cooked sausage rolls were packaged for distribution. Read more “Annual Community Volunteering”
Ann Pugh presents at Water NZ Modelling Symposium in Christchurch.
Urban Water Solutions have extensive experience in the design and optimisation of Pressure Sewer Systems across the world and presented a session at the Water NZ Modelling Symposium on ‘Optimising the Design & Operation of Pressure Sewer Systems’.
Pressure sewer systems have been in use since the early 1970s and are now an established alternative to gravity sewers for difficult to sewer areas. By using time-based pump operation rules, it is possible to control the timing of pump operations. This allows the modulation of flows in the system and reduces the peak flows to the discharge point. Modulating the flow by controlling how many pumps will operate simultaneously throughout the day, results in smaller pipe diameters across the system and reduces the detention time of the sewage in the PSS pipe network. Read more “Ann Pugh presents at Water NZ Modelling Symposium in Christchurch.”