Plumbing for an event Part One: getting water on site.

Initial Considerations

Provision of clean water is paramount for public health.
In this country, public health policy has taken the approach of removing control (and therefore risk) from water consumers themselves. This means that in general, you can't assume people understand the risks of water use in a field full of other people.

As water providers, you can only control the safety of the water supply up to the point that people draw water from it; risk (a).

If they contaminate the tap or the water coming out of it, then it's not your fault. However, as tap providers, you may be implicated! Good personal and kitchen hygiene is particularly important to reduce the other two risks, (b) and (c).

You need to liaise with the Sanitation and Kitchens people over this. You can help by installing the water supplies in such a way that it is harder to contaminate the taps; risk (b).

As intermediaries between the water supply (the 'mains') and the event participants, you run a fourth risk. You must fulfil the requirements of the Water Use Regulations 1999; principally this means not allowing waste of water or allowing contamination getting back into the mains supply from the camp. This is actually relatively easy. Hopefully this guide will get you started. If you can find a plumber who is trained in applying these regulations, so much the better; it willalso help when negotiating with the Council and Water Authority.

This section is not designed to put you off, just to make sure you understand what you are taking on, and to explain the necessity of some of the design criteria mentioned later.

Calculating volumes and numbers
You are a bit stuck as you don't know how many people will come. Neither do you know how much water they will need, this being so site and weather dependant. Guess, or educated guess.

Getting water on site:

You basically have two choices: you can either wangle a mains connection or provide giant water containers (bowsers). Actually calculating how much water you need is only significant if you choose the latter option. Both options have advantages and disadvantages. My experience is with the former, so here it is:

Climate camp 2007

At Climate Camp 2007, an unmetered mains connection was used for a fixed price; this had the advantage of cheapness (£150 for virtually unlimited water as opposed to several thousands for bowsers, which were all booked up in the flooded areas of the country anyway). The disadvantage was uncertainty; it relied on (a) co-operation from the Council and Water Authority and (b) there being a suitable attachment point (hydrant) near the site.

In England, one can apply for an extract license for commercial operations (usually building work) and attach a standpipe to a hydrant point in the road (usually covered by a metal lid flush to the ground in the verge and labelled with a yellow concrete or metal marker). These are where fire engines would extract water. The responsibility for this service seems to be handled by the local council, but with some cross over with the local water authority. Normally, these licenses need one to identify the hydrant point in advance and apply, with the license coming through in 10 days to a couple of weeks. A water authority representative will come out and make the connection and attach a label that says its an official connection. Usually you have to have your own standpipe, which they can sell you. It needs to have a non-return valve (one way valve) so you can't contaminate the mains through backflow (other users drawing water back from our pipes). The Climate Camp owns one.

In 2007, no one knew where the site was. This meant no-one knew;
if there was a hydrant nearby, which council/water authority to approach for a license, and the councils were saying they couldn't do a license on the spot.

A further problem was that the water isn't supposed to be used for drinking purposes because the water authority can't be sure that it would remain clean and therefore not make people ill. This is because a) the water in fire hydrant pipes could be in a deadleg (a branch of pipe with no through flow, in which the same water can sit for weeks or even years) of the mains so may not be fresh; b) the authority couldn't control how the water is used in the field, and dodgy practices might cross contaminate clean water or taps with dirty water or germs etc.

The first problem was reduced by speaking to the several possible council hydrant teams and making them aware their services might be called upon at short notice. Their forms were obtained and filled in ahead of time, guessing at the consumption (being cautious so they wouldn't be panicked) and putting usage as washing up and person washing only (to avoid awkward questions). Contact details/mobile numbers of a person in each office were obtained so that onsite at a weekend all that had to be done was ring the correct one and tell them where the camp was, where the nearst hydrant was, and negotiate.

Being pleasant, reasonable and as informative as possible ('just site crew, you know, never tell us anything, can see it's hard for you too...') seemed to help build up a good relationship from the beginning. The contacts were referred to their respective counterparts in Selby Council, with whom good relations were kept in 2006. Finally, having a water authority qualified plumber (recognised as a competent person to self certify work under the Regulations) doing the talking may have helped dampen technical reservations.

In the end, partly because there was also council liaison going on for weeks before hand (with 8 potential councils), when it came to it, the requisite license appeared promptly. It may have come down to the fact that the council was actually responsible for the thousand or so Campers. If it was their duty to provide water, and the easiest solution had been presented to them, this may explain how the rules were bent in our favour.

If you go down this route, don't forget that the hydrant is out on the roadside and vulnerable to every pissed-off local or policeman turning it off every ten minutes or breaking. It needs monitoring. At Drax/Selby, Climate Camp 2006, the closest hydrant was over a road, so needed a protective ramp for the pipe to cross the road - which locals enjoyed ramming to see if they could break the pipe, and others enjoyed threatening to sue Climate Camp for damaging their cars. This ramp was the single biggest headache of the whole camp for site crew. It needed repairing every night. It should have been nailed to the road. The fire brigade said they didn't have anything better!

So, in 2007, a water supply from the mains was established.

All we had to do then was connect up a series of pipes to distribute the water. It was, and is, important to set these up to comply to Water Regulations, which are the sensible way to minimise the risk of contamination, a shut off water supply, a lot of sick people and a demoralised/ineffective camp.

As stated, officially water obtained from a hydrant should not be drunk. However, the Heathrow site was between two villages on a straight run of mains, so we knew that the hydrant was not a dead-leg. We were also confident our water system was to Water Regulations. So we knew we had minimised Risk A) from the first paragraph. A further point is that new water systems should be chemically sterilised before use. As ths was impractical, we flushed a large amount of water through the pipework before allowing anyone to draw water for use. Handily, a large number of Firepoints were set up around the site, which all needed filling with water that would never be expected to be wholesome (rusty oil drums). So we were able to put our flushing water to good use.

For our own peace of mind, and to build trust with the (frankly enormously helpful) council and water authority, we co-operated with an Environmental Health team who came to test our water supply. A 100% pass rate confirmed that we had a safe water supply.

Climate Camp, Kingsnorth 2008
This year we had a different situation regarding connection to the mains. When the liaison team contacted Southern Water, the water authority responsible for that area, it was suggested that the camp hire a Southern
Water standpipe. The arrangement was that a charge of £80 and a deposit would be paid, returnable if the standpipe was returned undamaged, but that the water would be metered and camp would pay for what was used. We decided to go for this option. Our contact from Southern Water, Don, was very helpful. He gave liaison his mobile number and anticipating the likely sites for the camp gave us maps showing hydrants. I contacted him and established a rapport before the site takes.

When we arrived at the site I found that the nearest hydrant was over 200 metres away and on the other side of the road. This meant that we would have the same problems as at Drax. Plumbing tat had not arrived at that
point so we couldn’t get on with it anyway, so in the morning I rang Don. He agreed to come out with a maintenance engineer Bob. It transpired that because we had hired a standpipe, Southern Water was obliged to make sure that we had a safe supply. So they installed a temporary main for us at the gate.

As with any area of site set-up, the amount of work should not be underestimated, but neither should the fun and satisfaction to be had in smashing through the jargon barrier, skilling yourselves up and providing an essential requirement for a happy Camp.

Part 2 of 2: Getting water around the site (based on experience at Climate Camp 2008).
The plumbing infrastructure.
This will consist of:

1. a hydrant standpipe, ( the camps or water authorities depending on which option you go for). See Part One
above.

2. a length of 32mm MDPE (medium density polyethylene, usually blue in colour for water) pipe which will carry the flow from the hydrant standpipe. These will be connected by an adapter that at one end fits the
hydrant standpipe and at the other end fits the 32mm MDPE pipe. (There are a couple of ways to connect the 32mm pipe to the standpipe. Often the standpipe will have a hose union connector (although it doesn't appear
to be a standard 3/4” or 1/2” size... so don't loose the connector) onto which a short section of 25mm MDPE pipe can be pushed and secured with a jubilee clip. This can immediately be stepped up to 32mm MDPE pipe.
At the end of this 32mm length of pipe you will put in a 32mm stop cock. A stopcock is a valve that allows you to turn off the water at that point in the installation.

3. a ring of 25mm MDPE pipe. This ring will carry the flow of water around the camp. If, as at previous Climate Camps, a circular fire lane/track has divided central areas from outer sectors, then the water ring of pipe can follow the edge of this. If your camp is not laid out like a GCSE Geography town plan, then you can adapt the circuit shape to suit. The idea is to minimise the length of the spurs (see 4 below) coming off the ring both inwards and outwards. To connect the 32mm length of pipe to the 25mm ring of pipe there will be a 32 x 25 x 25 tee fitting or a 32mm tee with two 25mm internal reducers, giving a 32 x 25 x 25 tee fitting. At one or more points on the ring there will be a 25mm stopcock, this can also be called an isolation valve. (Stopcock is the name of the fitting, isolation valve is the job it is doing – other sorts of valves could be substituted to do the same job).

The idea of the ring is to assist the supply of water all the way around the camp. Smaller camps will find a single pipe with branches will do fine. The ring allows water to reach any given point on the ring from two
directions, preventing those further down the line being starved by those closer to the hydrant standpipe.

The idea of several stopcocks in the ring is to allow sections to be isolated for repair without having to cut off the whole supply to everyone else.

4. Running from the ring to each area that requires a water supply there will be a 25mm MDPE spur. These will be connected to the ring by 25 x 25 x 25 tee connectors. At the end of each spur, depending on how the water is to be used, you will have either a standpipe or a sink with a tap.

5. Standpipes, not to be confused with the hydrant standpipe. The standpipes for the climate camp are home made which can be easily done if there are plumbers on the team experienced in copper work. Each standpipe
will consist of a 15mm copper compression to 25mm MDPE elbow connecter that connects the stand pipe to the 25mm MDPE spur.

A vertical length of copper pipe, a non-return valve (which in this case needs to be a 'double check valve' which is two non-return valves in a row): this is of the utmost importance as it prevents backflow into the water supply which could cause contamination, an on/off valve, and finally a curved length of copper pipe, a short piece of hose may be attached to this to make it easier for users to fill containers but it must not be so long that it could touch the ground and thus cause contamination. The standpipe will be attached by zip ties to a lamp iron that can then be secured in the ground. There are other ways to make standpipes using a variety of fittings; this is just one way.

6. Sink with tap; these will be situated where hands need to be washed such as by toilet blocks. This will consist of an ordinary stainless steel sink and a stand. Sinks with a draining board that fit on top of a kitchen unit (i.e. that are rectangular) are much easier to build a stand for than 'inset' sinks that are cut into a worktop. Folding stands that can be moved and stored (thus conserving energy and resources) can be easily made. The tap in the figure below is a pillar tap; this is a tall tap like you would find on a kitchen sink and is preferable to a smaller
basin tap as it's easier to get a container or your face under the tap!).

If you have a choice, it is also helpful to have lever taps (instead of cross-head taps) at sinks or at least toilet hand washes so you don't need to touch the tap with dirty hands but can use your elbows to open them. They are also easier to use for people with reduced hand function.

A sequence of fittings will then be needed between the tap and the 25mm MDPE spur: 25 x 25 elbow and short vertical length of 25mm MDPE(or curve the pipe up from horizontal to vertical, but be aware of creating a
trip hazard); 15mm copper-25mm MDPE straight coupling, short length of 15 mmcopper, quarter turn screwdriver isolation valve, another short length of 15mm copper, 15mm to 1/2inch tap connector with 15mm red fibre washer (keep a supply of these as they get lost easily), a backnut that will clamp the tap to the sink, a rubber washer and finally the pillar tap, In the climate camp plumbing tat are a number of these assembled and named in the inventory as tap connector assemblies, don’t go to a plumbers’ merchants and ask for such a thing, as I did, you will only be met with blank looks. Again, there are other combinations of fittings that will
satisfactorily connect to a tap, this is just one example.

It is possible to simplify by going straight from MDPE via a 25mm to 1/2inch tap connector, but you then have no backflow protection or means to isolate the tap for repairs without turning off the supply to other taps.

How many fittings?
This is a difficult question to answer: it depends on how many people are coming and what resources you have available. Too many taps will encourage wasteful consumption, but too few will increase the risks of cross contamination between the three essential tasks of providing drinking & cooking water, providing washing up and providing personal washing/toilet handwashing. As a guide, I would suggest one standpipe for each neighbourhood, one standpipe and one sink for each main caterer, one sink for each toilet block and a separate sink for the medics. If there needs to be any area to cut back on, I would suggest that showers are a luxury that can be replaced with bowl washes at a vastly reduced water use.

The Team
In 2008, we had a team of six and this was ideal. We had a team coordinator that was me; before I took on 2008 camp plumbing I had never even changed a washer on a tap. The coordinator gets the team together, (I put out appeals on through the camp news letter and various associated group email lists) communicates with the site coordinator and the liaison team, organises the training, organises the audit of the plumbing tat, does the budget, and generally keeps people informed, connected and happy. I was the only member of the team without previous plumbing experience but with the Activist Tat Collective's excellent training and fantastic support from the team I managed. Once on site with everything ready to go we did the planning together and then we worked in pairs to do the installation.

Tools

• Yellow plastic bucket marked clearly plumbing only to hold all your tools and fittings
• Alcohol gel - for cleaning hands before starting as well as before and after breaks
• Water pump pliers
• Adjustable spanners
• MDPE pipe cutters, big enough for 32mmpipe
• Penknife
• Flat head screw driver
• Philips screw driver
• Lump hammer
• Zip ties – also known as ty wraps
• Gaffer tape
• PTFE sealing compound
• PTFE tape
• Spare copper olives and red fibre washers

And if you are doing more copper work, a hacksaw and file or 15mm copper pipe cutters.

Getting started
You and your team will arrive at camp trained (ask the Activist Tat Collective), you will have done the audit so you know what you have got and purchased anything you are short of, and you will have either an extraction licence or a water authority standpipe. You will have established a rapport with a water authority operative. Your plumbing tat will hopefully have arrived.

Go out and find the nearest hydrant, contact your friendly water authority operative.

Talk to the site coordinator and find out what the ground plan is for the camp. Walk the site. The lay out team should be busily marking out fire lanes and such essential structures as central kitchen, first toilet block, site office, etc. will be well under construction. Walk the site. Sit down together and make your plumbing plan. Always bear in mind that keeping the water clean, preventing contamination is your responsibility and your primary concern. Use the alcohol gel and clean your hands. Remember as it says above that people do not necessarily know how to keep water free from contamination in a field so make sure you let people know that this is their responsibility too.

Point out that if short filling hoses are attached to stand pipes they should not touch the ground. Anyone using a long hose that touches the ground should assume it is contaminated at the head and shouldn't dunk it in their vessel of clean water.....On one occasion last year I found a long hose attached to the central kitchen standpipe, the end of which was resting in a bowl of standing water. Luckily, because of the double check valve, the rest of the camp supply was protected from contamination.

Sort your plumbing tat, each team of two gets themselves a yellow "plumbing only” bucket and fills it with tools, 32mm and 25mm pipe inserts and fittings.

If you judge it appropriate in the circumstances, attach the hydrant standpipe to the hydrant. If you think that it might not be safe to do this because, e.g. the hydrant is some distance form the camp, leave this till security can be ensured.

Run the 32mm pipe from the hydrant to the stopcock that will be, ideally, situated near the site office for easy monitoring and access. One length may suffice or you may have to join one or more lengths using 32mm x
32mm straight couplings. You will have learnt in your training to make sure there are pipe inserts in the end of each section of pipe and to trim the ends of the pipe using the MDPE pipe cutter if necessary to make sure there is a clean straight cut; how to fit the couplings on to the pipe and tighten using the pump pliers.

The following is how we did things at the 2008 climate camp. You do not necessarily have to do things exactly in this order.

Lay out the pipe for the 25mm ring.

Connect the 32mm pipe to the first and last sections of the 25m ring with the 32mm x 25mm x25mm T.

Attach the first 25mm spur using a 25mm x 25mm x25mm T.

Fit the 25mm isolation valve / stopcock to the ring.

With the isolation valve in the off position you can now turn on the water to test for leaks.

It is advisable that you have at least one more isolation valve / stopcock, depending on the size of the camp, on the ring and then if you need to do maintenance or fit another spur you can isolate a section and most of the camp will still have access to water.

The three teams of two can work independently connecting the spurs and then the standpipe or tap depending on what is required.

When you have reached the stage where you have connected the spurs that you know you need, you may need to connect more later, you can then test for leaks. You are then ready to flush through the system. As stated
above, you do not need to waste the 500 gallons flushing water because you can use it to fill the fire barrels.

Some of the pipe work will have to cross fire lanes. Where this is happens it is a good idea to bury the pipes in shallow trenches to avoid damage.

Maintenance
Make maintenance round of the camp each morning and evening to check for leaks and dodgy practices. Stop for a chat and a cup of tea in good workman like tradition at each neighbourhood. Get the ‘locals’ to keep an
eye out for problems & leaks. Make sure everyone knows about water safety. One person from the team will need to be on call so that problems can be dealt with promptly. Give the number of the person on call to the site office.

Taking everything apart and sorting it out, aka 'Tat down'
Tip - You will have realised that the grab rings can easily drop out of the fittings. When removing couplings it is best to cut them out leaving a short length of pipe each side. This way you will not lose any of the tiny parts inside. Back at base you can remove the spare bits of pipe and reassemble the complete fittings at your leisure.

Leaving one spur to the central kitchen and one to the wash stand by the toilets that will remain through tat down as you remove the rest of the installation including the ring. The teams can go round detaching standpipes and taps and sinks, then the spurs and then the pipe forming the main ring can be rolled up and taped using gaffa tape.

If done carefully, the majority of water in the pipes will be expelled and yet the pipe ends will not be covered in mud. In this case, it is worth using a bit of tape to cover the pipe ends to reduce contamination of the inside of the pipes; it keeps out muck & slugs when they are stored.

If you are borrowing equipment, please please please spend time sorting through it, checking that each fitting has all its constituent parts in the right order, and for ease of reuse, put everything into boxes or bags labelled with the type and number of each fitting contained therein.

This saves a job next time round....

Any fittings that are incomplete, broken or in need of repair should be grouped together and labelled as such.

We hope this guide has answered many of your questions – it can't unfortunately provide a prescription for every eventuality. If you need more help, try finding some local plumbers, or contact Activist Tat to see if someone can advise you. There maybe an upcoming training, or your team could be big enough to put one on for you. Good luck, and don't forget your waders!