The Importance of Correctly Bolted Joint Connections in Water Pipelines

What if we lost the Bloemhof Dam?

With a reservoir volume of 1269 million m3 of water, the Bloemhof Dam is one of South Africa’s biggest dams. But what if one year, by ‘accident’, we lost it? and it just disappeared?

Surely you can't just lose a Dam that big? Or can you?

The answer is ‘yes’, sadly you can lose something that big and it happens every year around the world in almost every country on every continent.

But how, does it happen?

That’s quite simple, in this case we can say it's due to leakage.

Keeping with SA as an example, what if I told you that in 2012 that the total non-revenue water ‘lost’ in South Africa amounted to 1580 million m3 of clean processed water? (More than the total water volume held by the Bloehmof Dam).

That's quite shocking to read isn't it?

Aren't there Industry Standards Applied to Water Pipelines?

'Yes, there are standards'.... I hear you say! But look a little deeper and you’ll find standards available for the pipes, flanges and the welding of flanges onto a singular pipe section. But what about the process of bolting one pipe flange to the next pipe flange?

How shocked would you be if I told you that in most cases there are ‘Zero’ standards or industry recognised procedural guidelines for the process bolting of one pipe section to the next? But we all know that bolted joint connections, can, and do leak when not done correctly??

If you work in water processing what can you do?

So where ever you live in the world, and it doesn't matter if you're a pipeline designer or an installation engineer. You need to speak to a HYTORC bolting expert so that you’re not partly responsible for losing a 'Bloemhof Dam' in your country too. Do it now, because water is essential to all of our lives, and at these challenging times of COVID-19 there are people working hard to produce clean water that never reaches our homes due to avoidable leakages.

Reference Sources

(Water Practice & Technology, Manuscript WPT-14-91)