Plumbing Africa February 2018 | Page 42

40 PROJECT << Continued from page 39 By Dineo Phoshoko The restaurant chain’s head office in Midrand also has a factory where Nando’s sauces are produced. The area experiences regular water cuts due to maintenance or water shedding at times, which affects production at the sauce factory. As a result, Nando’s loses out on revenue, since production of the sauces is not possible without water. The factory initially had an 80 000ℓ backup water system that was made up of eight 10 000ℓ JoJo tanks. It had a temporary quick connection with a small pump in a bypass. The factory needs massive amounts of water for its production cycle, but the backup water system of Nando’s was not ideal, as it did not meet the factory’s water requirements and it was not a fully integrated system. The system had tanks with a suction (the booster pump) and then a supply, with both coming off valves that needed to be manually turned on and off depending on whether municipal or backup water was being used. The water remained in the tanks and required crossover every two days to get fresh water.  Nando’s approached Burgess and Partners Plumbing Services for a sustainable backup water system that would also use the eight JoJo tanks in the initial system. Calculations were done, and it was determined that the factory required a 240 000ℓ backup system. The system would ensure ongoing production for at least one day, in the event of a water cut. With this information, Burgess designed a system that incorporated four 40 000ℓ Roto tanks, which amounted to 160 000ℓ. When combined with the initial eight 10 000ℓ tanks, this system would provide the factory with the required 240 000ℓ of backup water supply. ASSEMBLING THE NEW BACKUP WATER SYSTEM To get the system up and running, a dedicated team from Nando’s and Burgess collaborated on the project. The team started by cutting into the existing municipal supply that goes straight into the factory and diverted the pipework with new galvanised pipework. The surrounding area had to be excavated and connected to all the tanks. Nando’s had designated an area close to the factory for all 12 tanks to be installed. A concrete slab was built to support the weight of all 12 tanks combined. Together, the tanks weighed approximately 240 tonnes. As such, a lot of concrete was used to build a reliable slab. Once the concrete was dry and the tanks ready, two booster pumps from HMS pumps were installed. All the tanks were connected with pipework