Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies the general purpose, methods, performance requirements for equipment, and evaluation methods for inspection results related to the inspection of drinking water pipes from the inside, while the pipe is still in service. This information enables water utilities to understand the condition of internal pipes and maintain them properly.

The scope of this document includes the following:

— objectives of internal inspection

— items of internal inspection

— methods of internal inspection

— data processing and reporting,

— evaluation of inspection results

— required performance of inspection equipment

— principles of operating and maintaining such systems.

— Quality assurance (QA) and Quality control (QC).

This document does not cover:

— inspection of dry water pipes.

Purpose

Derived by global warming and climate changes, water has become an urgent issue in the last two decades. A whole new efforts and activities from water management, water reuse, water purification etc', tends to face this problem in order to make water supply for human use, agriculture and the industry, sustainable.

Water distribution networks – which are mostly underground - are the world's largest engineering infrastructures (100s millions of km) that do not receive direct periodical inspection.

Partial or no solutions exist to the wide spectrum of challenges facing drinking water network operators: leaks, faulty welds, corrosion, blockage, pirate connections and unmapped (GIS) network segments. The result: substantial water and energy loss and costly network maintenance.

Pipes inspection from the inside, along with wide spectrum of technologies for drinking water pipes inspection from the outside are being used to help the water utilities to manage the network.

This document has been developed to address the lack of an international standard concerning the inservice inspection of drinking water pipes from the inside while the pipe is still in service i.e. excluding dry water pipes where the environment and regulations are totally different.

The aim of this document is to:

— define the purpose, methods, environment, the systems, devices and evaluation methods for inspection results that are under the scope of the document,

— set out clear requirements regarding the complete system (the platform, sub-systems and the data processing),

— set out clear demands regarding the operating of such a system.

This document provides a global benchmark that can be used by the water companies that uses inservice water pipes inspection from the inside.