Perhaps the Dawn of the Replacement Era heralded by AWWA in 2001 is actually upon us – better late than never! Turning the pages of the industry magazines and journals; there certainly does seem to be an increase in activity levels with job stories and investment news on InsituGuard®, Aquapipe®, SwageLining™ and various polymer spray linings. In the UK there are expectations in certain quarters that

AMP5 will bring new emphasis on structural lining now that water quality programs have generally been completed and in Hong Kong there seems to be WSD projects on every street corner. The need, as pointed out by AWWA and the EPA Needs assessment, has been with us for some time and perhaps now we are seeing long overdue step change in installation works.

Of course water mains renovation and replacement is an order of magnitude more difficult than corresponding sewer works, condition assessment and service reinstatements have always been more of a challenge in clean water and perhaps the absence of tools in the tool box has been an inhibiting factor. There has been progress in these areas – use of the iTAP® type robot seems to be satisfactory and this is encouraging others to develop similar tools. Leak detection has been recognised as a particularly useful means of identiying stressed pipelines and various electromagnetic tools facilitate determination of residual life and help prioritise rehabilitation works. What else do we need to keep the momentum growing in this important sector of our business?

Clear standard specification and approval procedures spring to mind. It seems to take an inordinate amount of time and money for the development of standards and approvals and these are vital to building the confidence in the utility owner community that will unlock the investments necessary to regenerate our water infrastructure. Standards are usually created by committees representing owners and suppliers, some groups are more welcoming to new entrants than others, some are heavy with vested interests, some seek to screen members by requiring that they represent industry groups. And here is my question to our membership – should ISTT seek to play a role in the developments of standards and exert influence on the approvals procedures? We can say that we represent all sides of the industry and we do have within our membership some of the most respected professionals who could play a part in the process subject of course to the establishment of proper practices and procedures within our organisation. In many cases the regulation of the industry is quite properly a local matter, though in Europe and through North America regional groups do the business. Where local determination is the preference could ISTT fulfil an advisory role to the national chapter or affiliated society? Certainly we get many enquiries concerning standards and approvals and it may be we should put our hand up and volunteer our potential contribution.

These activities are energy and time intensive – we may need to consider resourcing an initiative if our membership considers that we should be more active in these areas. Fortunately ISTT has come though the lean times, at least for now, our successful events and training initiative mean that I hope to hand over a thriving organisation to Dr Sam Ariaratnam in November. Participation in standards development in partnership with member organisations may be a component of the outreach we should be funding. Let’s hear what you have to say. I write this hoping that we can develop a lively debate in the lead up to the Singapore International Conference where your ISTT Board members can be briefed to inform a consensus. I shall be visiting NASTT in Chicago, UKSTT at their annual dinner and ABRATT in Sao Paolo in the coming months so I hope to meet many members and hear your views.