‘‘PIGS’’ will fly through water mains in the cities of Whittlesea and Hume in a new pipe-cleaning system, saving millions of litres of water each year.
Yarra Valley Water will use a technique known as “ice pigging” to scrub its water mains with a thick slurry of ice, called an “ice pig”.
Tony Kelly, the authority’s managing director, said the ice pig scraped away sediment to improve water quality, and the slurry was ejected out of a hydrant further down the line. The new system would be installed in November.
“Ice pigging can clean around 17 times more sediment from our water mains than using traditional flushing techniques, and does so five times more efficiently,” Mr Kelly said.
