IMPROVED DESIGN OF WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM FOR ONDO STATE SPECIALIST HOSPITAL AKURE

Abstract

Water is one of the most important natural providence for the continuity of life. The groundwater stored in aquifers of the earth crust within the Ondo State Specialist Hospital Akure was explored and exploited by drilling two Boreholes, at the two locations recommended in the geophysical investigation report previously carried out, to the depth of 50m and 45m respectively. After completion of the drilling the boreholes were tested to determine their production capacities (the yield). To ascertain the degree of compliance of the quality of the water from the boreholes with the requirement specified by World Health Organization (W.H.O), samples were taken to the laboratory for analysis. From the result of the analysis it was discovered that the water is colourless and neutral to acid and alkaline indicators, and also free from all causative agents of water hardness. Hence, they conform to the standard of good quality drinking water as prescribed by the World Health Organization. The water consumption within the hospital was determined to be 99,500 litres per day; hence, a water supply scheme was designed to meet the hospital demand. The pipeline network was designed using Hazen-Williams formula, and the designed system has branches (parallel system) into which the water flows for easy distribution within the hospital. The flow rate in each of the three branches was calculated to be 0.00465m3/s; 0.00717m3/s, 0.00468m3/s, and the head loss in each branch were determined using Hardy ." Cross technique to be 1.60m, 1.64m and 1.59m respectively. In the analysis of the pipeline design, the three forms of energy head, (potential energy due to its elevation, kinetic energy due to the velocity of the fluid and flow energy which represent the amount of work necessary to move the element of fluid), are properly accounted for using the general energy equation and were found to be; 7.8m as potential head, 0.71m and 2.50m are kinetic and flow energy respectively in 75mm diameter pipe, while 0.23m and 3.25m are kinetic and flow energy respectively in 100mm diameter pipe. The frictional losses in the system were analyzed and were found to 7.58m. The choice of pipe for the design was made base on condition of operations such as physical, climatic and environmental. For the main trunk 100mm Un-plasticized Polyvinyl Chloride (UPVC) pipes were used while 25mm and 32mm Galvanized Iron (G.1) pipes (depending on the demand) were used to service the buildings.