WPC
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The Community Plumbing Challenge ( CPC ) was most recently conducted right here in South Africa just a couple of months ago and is a great example of collaboration and partnership , and of how the WPC networks and connections can help bring agencies , municipalities , water authorities , and industry from around the world together to achieve common goals . In July 2016 , teams of skilled plumbing professionals and students from Australia , USA , India and South Africa arrived in Diepsloot , north of Johannesburg , to compete in the 2016 Community Plumbing Challenge .
Diepsloot is a crowded , very low-income township . Most Diepsloot residents rely on communal toilets , many of which are inadequate or not operating . Recent studies show that in the parts of Diepsloot where the challenge took place , anywhere between 13 and 45 households share one toilet , tap and drain .
Eight defunct communal toilets were plucked from the ground and then four international student teams collaborated to develop the most effective and sustainable new upgrade solutions , to reinstall and reconnect these communal toilets for local Diepsloot residents .
The CPC is a great template and we are learning from it all the time , not only about what can be achieved , but also how to collaborate , how to partner and how to bring best value to the community from those collaborations .
For the local community it provides a live working example of how to identify , design and install sustainable plumbing solutions . It not only provides education and training opportunities direct to communities , but also helps raise awareness and promote the role of plumbing in providing sustainable solutions .
Underpinning the CPC is a broad and multilayered collaboration between :
• Education and research focused bodies ;
• Entities with local water and sanitation management as well as regulatory responsibility ; and
• Industry representatives and associations , local and international .
I think the CPC represents the tip of a potential iceberg in terms of what is possible . Collectively we have enormous skill and knowledge , and we are , through programmes like the CPC , learning how to share them with the communities that need it most .
Most importantly , the projects move beyond the demonstrative to leave a lasting improvement for the community that can then be replicated . It is creating a viral approach to plumbing and sanitation improvement . Continued on page 20 >> www . plumbingafrica . co . za February 2017 Volume 22 I Number 12