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"Once the water passes the
water meter, it now becomes the
responsibility of the homeowner
and the municipality no longer
has control over what happens
to it."
• The water is often heated in an aged hot water cylinder that will
add lime scale to the potable water in a backflow situation.
• When summer comes and we are filling the pool and fishponds
with a hose this could also be a cause of contamination.
So, if we look at it from their view, the probability of getting
contaminants from domestic installations is very high, and we
have not even ventured into water from alternative sources such
as boreholes and rainwater harvesting. Thus, it is no wonder that
SANS10252/1 of 2018 says in D.1.1 Design, installation and
maintenance: ‘All water supply systems shall be designed, installed,
and maintained so as to prevent contaminants from being introduced
into the potable water supply system’.
The big question now is not the quality of our water, but how to
prevent it from happening. The regulations are very clear on what is
expected from us and how to achieve zero backflow from entering the
potable system. A follow-up article in the October issue of Plumbing
Africa will go into detail on how to achieve this. PA
Patrick Gordon, general manager at
CalAfrica since June 2019, started
in the plumbing retail business
in 1985 with the Boumat
Group. In 2000 he moved from
the retail to the manufacturing
sector when he joined Cobra
Watertech. He remained with
the company for 19 years, rising
rapidly in various roles from product
support manager / product development
manager, a role which was expanded in 2005 to national
product support manager with, latterly, more than half his
life spent on technical training. He has also qualified as a
facilitator and assessor. He is the featured personality in
the August 2019 issue of Plumbing Africa.
September 2019 Volume 25 I Number 7
www.plumbingafrica.co.za