Authors: Daniel LABROCA, Miguel Perez NAVARO, Jose SALDANHA
Many initiatives in the field of the water cycle come from international and national authorities and institutions. We note, for example:
- The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations
- The European Green Deal and New Water Directive with a greater focus on risk and leakage reduction
- National legislation on eco-design and industrial symbiosis
- Taxonomy report 2020 for encouraging private investment in green funds ...
These strong impulses lead to a deep shift in the thinking of all actors that participate in the Water Sector. These include the following reactions:
- Pipe material manufacturers have been encouraged to adapt and provide new products and services that comply with sustainability and the reduction of CO2 emissions.
- ISO and CEN Standard Committees have introduced new concepts such as Reference Service Life andFunctional Unit, and have proposed new guidance Standards oriented to life cycle analysis and asset management.
- Water Works have been strongly encouraged to investigate better understanding of their water pipeline infrastructures, water rates, causes of incidents, maintenance policies, and social impacts.
The 5th conference of IWA ( International Water Association) held in Porto in Sept 2021 provided the opportunity to present a brief overview of respective reactions. In particular, it was noted how the convergence of views and initiatives of DIP manufacturers, the ISO TC5/SC2 committee, and water authorities have enhanced the preparation of operational standard tools (ex ISO 21053, ISO/DIS 4370 …). The intention of these standards is to support designers, customers and users to optimize DI pipeline solutions with global cost evaluation, life cycle analysis, safety requirements, and environmental criteria.
The presentation also highlighted the benefits of the circular economy due to DI pipe recyclability and its re-usability;, all this to create anew look at water infrastructure networks of Ductile iron pipelines.