Standards and specifications

How to meet building and developing requirements

Listed providers for building and developing must use our instructions, forms, and standards and specifications to fulfil all work requirements. These documents are updated from time to time.

About our standards

To sustain and continuously improve the value to our customers, we use engineering expertise and learnings from around the world to provide world-class water services. With this knowledge, we create, maintain and update the engineering standards we use to build and maintain our assets. Our standards focus on technical requirements that provide more clarity to the wider industry and Australian Standards. They promote the best value for money for us and our customers.

Framework for engineering assurance

We have a framework of interrelated processes to assure high engineering standards for our assets. The framework is mandated by our accredited ISO 55001 Asset Management System.

Standards

Our standards provide planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance support to the asset planning and creation functions under the Asset Management Policy and Asset Creation Policy. They are a collection of guidelines, specifications, methodologies and requirements. They continually evolve through changing operational conditions, innovations, improvements or suggestions that come from real-world experience, and changes to performance expectations.

Engineering standards governance procedure D00002010

We rely on professional engineers to provide services to create, maintain and operate our assets. To optimise value to the public, engineers who provide engineering design services must also meet our competency standard. This ensures assets are designed to achieve planned outcomes and are fit for purpose.

Design procedures

These procedures apply to the design process.

Manuals

These guidelines provide information and design guidelines for our infrastructure.

Hierarchy of standards

Our technical specifications take precedence

Sydney Water's civil, mechanical, electrical, and instrumentation and control specifications take precedence over any other standard and specification.

Supplementary specifications and standards

These specifications and standards must be used in conjunction with the above technical specifications, regardless of whether they are or are not referenced therein.

Specialised assessments: building over or adjacent to our assets

Chemical dosing and odour control for wastewater

Disinfection of water

Technical specification – network rechlorination plant D0000389

Wastewater pump-station-related specifications

High voltage (HV)

Sewer rehabilitation

WSAA codes

We maintain our own editions of and supplement to Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) codes. You must use these instead of the standard WSAA codes. You can purchase Sydney Water editions of the codes at the WSAA Shop: Sydney Water Codes.

The following supplements must be used in conjunction with the relevant WSAA codes:

Deemed to Comply (DTC) drawings

Sydney Water's DTC drawings are intended to assist designers and constructors in building assets that meet our requirements. The use of DTCs are subject to very specific terms and conditions. Please read our Deemed to Comply drawings terms and conditions of use before using DTC drawings.

DTC drawings are approved design solutions that help to construct high-volume, repetitive assets. It is not mandatory to use these drawings.

How to download DTC drawings

1 Choose one of these folders:

2 Get the drawing number from the list.

3 Download the drawing.

Acceptable products

Only use conforming standard products and/or listed non-standard products for components that are critical for the long-term performance of our networks.

Standard products must conform and be certified to the relevant product specification that has been adopted by us and shown in the EPS 500 Engineering product specification for standard pipes and fittings for networks D0001613.

Non-standard products are deemed by us to be fit for purpose and/or provide equivalent functional performance to standard products. They're individually listed in the EPS 501 List of approved non-standard products for networks D0001614.