WE all realise that climate change is a reality.
Weather events are more erratic, more dramatic and have more impact on everyday life as well as the possible disruption of agricultural production.
The devastation and tragedy in Gippsland are testament to the need for action in terms of preparation before the next event.
Flood damage lasts long after the water has receded.
Communities and businesses take months to recover as well as the personal tolls on families.
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Dealing with floods
When floods are a 100 year event it is easy for governments, local, state and federal to ignore the need for any serious activity.
For example, the idea that you don’t have to do anything about the last flood, except clean it up, with the next one 99 years away.
Those days are over.
Yet, local government bodies are underfunded, unable to deal with serious flood mitigation.
At both state and federal levels, they seem oblivious to the need to react to the recent events.
For example, we don’t read about the NSW Government’s massive plans to build levies and dikes around Lismore to protect the town from the next flood.
We know the flood is coming, but it gets back to political priorities.
One Australian pump manufacturer, Australian Pump Industries, has studied these issues and is offering townships a mobile flood mitigation program.
It takes the form of heavy duty pumps designed for moving large volumes of dirty flood water from where it is, to where you want it to be.
The pumps, big 6” self priming gushers will handle spherical solids up to 3 inches in diameter.
They will pump 6000 litres per minute (lpm) in terms of flow and are equipped to handle dirty water, even contaminated sewage.
The big pumps, called Aussie MQ600TD, are powered by 80hp Deutz air cooled diesel engines and come in either skid or trailer mounted configurations.
What’s so good about these pumps is their simplicity.
The pump consists of one big cast iron body with a huge self priming tank built into the casting.
It is that big tank that enables the machine to a draft water through a vertical lift of 7.6 metre.
No priming devices are required.
The pump primes itself.
The impeller is a huge open design built to withstand abrasion and solids laden liquid.
The mechanical seal is “an over the top” oil lubricated, tungsten titanium carbide configuration.
Best of all there is a huge clean-out port built into the front of the body that enables a choke to be cleared in a matter of minutes.
In other words, it is designed for this specific application.
Skid Mount 6” Trash Pump
This version is built on a heavy duty stainless steel frame with a 150 litre fuel tank.
That fuel tank allows the engine an 11 hour run time.
A balanced integrated lifting bar is also included in the package.
Safety Equipment including a LOFA engine control shutdown system that incorporates warnings for low oil pressure, high oil temperature and even v-belt failure.
Additionally, a shock mounted control panel is also provided.
It’s built into a water resistant housing and includes an hour metre, ammeter, tachometer and alternator failure light.
Best of all it is all heavy duty, simple and handles a lot of water.
Make it mobile
Aussie engineers have enabled the skid mount version to be promptly turned into a heavy duty site trailer configuration.
That includes a robust torsion style dual axle, max load 1,600 kilograms, and heavy duty army style drawbar.
Heavy duty jack legs are also incorporated in the 6” trailer mounted pump.
Clear it fast....over eight million litres per day
Three of these heavy duty pumps, can redirect up to 25 million litres of water every 24 hours.
That’s like buying a flood mitigation system without concrete channels, dams or levies as part of the package.
Of course, smart operators also take precautions and do invest in infrastructure to facilitate the movement of water fast, even with pumps like the Big Aussie Job.
Saving Horsham
It was almost 15 years now since Millers Contracting, an earthmoving contractor who uses an Aussie MQ600TD, 6000 lpm pump, just for site dewatering, saved the Victorian town of Horsham from flooding.
The Miller team moved fast and were able to pump water from the town into a side channel, providing “instant flood relief service.”
A bank of 23 of these machines recently saved the capital city of South Sudan, Juba from flooding by redirecting the Nile away from the city.
Why wet prime pumps work
Australian Pump Industries is the specialist in self-priming centrifugal pumps.
Although they started out with small lightweight portable fire pumps the company have expanded the range over the last 30 years and now offers these Flood Busters for contaminated water and sewage by-pass as well.
The concept is simple.
Instead of having vacuum pumps or compressors attached to the pump, Aussie’s self priming pumps only need the pump to be primed through a priming port in the top of the pump casing.
Further information on the Aussie 6” self priming flood mitigation pumps is available from https://www.aussiepumps.com.au.
