With over 170,000 visitors and more than 11 million litres of water required over a period of five days, it is no surprise that the small village main could not cope with increased demand during the festival period. To make up for the shortfall, the Festival run tankers 24 hours a day, delivering water from a reservoir seven miles away. Sewage was driven off site by lorries which made 40 trips per day in 90 mile round journeys to a sewage plant in Avonmouth.
In response to the situation, the Festival has now completed the installation of two 'Worthy Wells', underground reservoirs, each holding one million litres of fresh water. Once both reservoirs are full - Bristol Water will deliver up to 25 litres a second all day and night prior to the event - the site's water supply will be completely self-sufficient. In another move to cut down on water miles, the site's sewage will now be transported to local sewage plants within a much smaller ten-mile radius, dramatically reducing fuel use by over 90%.
A recurrent problem in the past was low pressure experienced as a result of frequent power surges and pumped water not reaching some of the remote areas. This will be dealt with by extending the existing ring main for seven kilometres to bring water to more points around the site. The new main is aimed to be stronger, with better pressure. It is laid in 160mm Excel (PE100) pipe, manufactured by the Cambridgeshire-based GPS PE Pipe Systems. The choice of a thicker walled pipe in SDR11 was driven by the requirement for a higher pressure rating to ensure consistent supply.
In-house contractors constructed the pipeline largely by welding the 100m pipe coils. With service connections to be made at frequent intervals, the installers fitted coiled pipe lengths with 115 Durafuse electrofusion couplings. Phil Miller, Glastonbury Festivals Infrastructure Manager, commented: "With very tight deadlines, the relative speed of commissioning the PE system was the key factor. Even with a few minor setbacks, the work has been completed on time and the result is all worth it."
###
