Plumbing Africa June 2018 | Page 45

PROJECT 43 By Dineo Phoshoko A year later, Lusted Plumbing was contracted to work on the entire scope of plumbing and drainage on certain buildings of the university. PROJECT BACKGROUND In 2010, the then Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, appointed two task teams to investigate the feasibility of establishing new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape. The Mpumalanga task team submitted a favourable report in September 2011, recommending the establishment of a new university in the province. Two years after the submission, UMP was officially launched in October 2013. The university will incorporate the infrastructure of three existing institutions: Lowveld College of Agriculture, the hospitality school at KaNyamazane, and the Siyabuswa Education Campus. Currently, the university offers twelve programmes and more programmes will be introduced in 2019. UMP Vice Chancellor, Professor Thoko Mayekiso, said, “The university will contribute to the academic development that is needed by the youth and the growing demand for education in South Africa and the southern African region. As the only university in Mpumalanga, it will be accessible to students from as far as Swaziland and Mozambique.” THE INSTALLATION Lusted Plumbing started working on the project in the middle of 2014. The plumbing company worked on six buildings at the university, starting with the first residential block (B001). Lusted Plumbing also worked on the executive admin block (NBP001), the library block (NBP002), the ICT (computer) block (NBP003), admin and multipurpose block (NBP007), and the residence and Lusted Plumbing owner Llewellyn Lusted explained that the plumbing company worked closely with Delca Systems, a wet services engineering company, who came up with the design specifications for the project. The project mainly involved the installation of domestic plumbing and sanitary drainage. This included the erecting of manholes, new sewer lines, ring feeds to all the units, and connecting to existing stormwater and sewer supplies. Overall, this project covered the entire scope of plumbing and drainage. For block B001, the following were installed: stormwater, black sewer, greywater harvesting and supply (for toilet flushing), cold water, hot water plant, and supply (to all six buildings making up this block). Installation at block NBP003 was made up of stormwater, sewer and cold water — all internal to the building. Blocks NBP001 and NBP002 had the same installation of stormwater, black sewer, greywater supply (for toilet flushing), cold water, hot water plant, and supply — all internal to the building. The remaining two building blocks — NBP007 and NBP013 — also had a similar installation, which included stormwater, sewer, rainwater storage and supply (for toilet flushing), cold water, hot water plant, and supply. The university also has a hotel school, which is another separate building. Van Aardt’s Plumbing, under the management of Frans van Aardt, took responsibility for this building. Most of the work done on the hotel school consisted of the installation of domestic plumbing and sanitary drainage in the main kitchen, the demo kitchen, and the hotel rooms. 1. 2. Greywater system to supply water for toilet flushing only. Circulation pump of the ring feed for the hot water. 2 1 central dining block (NBP013). Work is still in progress, with completion being expected in February 2019. Continued on page 45 >> www.plumbingafrica.co.za June 2018 Volume 24 I Number 4