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DESIGN: DEAR MR PLUMBER
Complying
with drainage
regulations and
4IR thinking
“A typical We have three options of how to comply with the seven sanitary
example of this drainage regulations.
rigid thinking By By Vollie Brink, Pr Eng
and lack of
the exact words were that it was meant to always be
There are only seven sanitary drainage regulations
adaptability is in SANS 10400-P, and these are Part 1 to Part 7.
used, “so that you do not need an engineer for a house
design”.
with the older Part 2 is the important technical design regulation to
This too is old news, but I want you to just take a
which the design and installation must comply and
generation is inherently a description of how the system must
moment and think how this will affect the 4th industrial
revolution, the so-called 4IR. I wrote an article for another
function. It is the cornerstone of the deem-to-satisfy-rule
who frantically (DTSR) design, but also the basis of the rational design
engineering magazine about 4Ir that will affect the future
of all of us.
(RD). It is also the Agrément Certification for design
cling to the and construction, if someone has such a design and
This 4IR is not still coming, it is already here and it
construction solution. These performance regulations are
regulations and in Annex A, and B.
seems it will be mostly electronic development and
intelligent high-tech that could perhaps even replace
specifically the The choice of which design solution to use is at the choice
much of your and my work, however, at my age I am not
concerned too much, but you should perhaps be more
of the owner, but the Building Control Officer also has
‘rules’.” a choice and may require a rational design if he or she
concerned, in a positive way, as it should give you more
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
deems it necessary due to complexity, or any other reason
that deems it necessary. scope and opportunities, and even a better world to live
in (I hope!).
If you carefully study the DTSR, you will see that it is
basically a recipe for housing and offices, and it does not
pertinently address buildings such as hospitals, hotels,
shopping centres and industrial buildings. This is where
the RD comes in. I know you may tell me that all of this is old news to you,
but what I want to discuss in this article is something
related to all of this. 4IR cannot happen without change, progress, renewal,
innovation, and thinking out-of-the-box. Stagnation will
prevent you from participating in the 4IR race and it is
developing at an exponential rate. What took years to
develop is now progressing at phenomenal rates and if
you want to be part of it, you must wake up with new
thinking and be willing to change or stay behind. I find
that many in the plumbing trade are not willing to adapt
and change.
The DTSR design and construction recipe was
specifically developed for the plumber or architect, and There is an old saying, ‘adapt or die’, and now is the
time to adapt. My concern is that so many people use
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August 2019 Volume 25 I Number 6