20 WPC
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The WPC Scholarships and other efforts to promote education in our industry need to be broadly communicated and taken up where a real difference can be made . I had the pleasure of hosting the 2014 Least Developed and Developing Countries Scholarship winner , Bataa Sandag , from Outer Mongolia , at PICAC . During the visit in which we were providing some training delivery instruction , Bataa said to me that he would never have been able to participate in anything like this if it were not for this scholarship .
This year we were extremely excited to learn that he had hosted the first ever plumbing skills competition for apprentices in his region .
Industry Industry has a key role in educating the community , as well as policy and decision-makers . We can work to put the case for water infrastructure investment ; to build robust governance structures around water management agencies ; and to make sure that when governments are making allocative decisions , they are factoring in the water implications of doing so .
In the same way as the world has become increasingly aware over recent decades of their individual and collective contributions to carbon pollution ( their carbon footprint ), so it must become with water . recycling , desalination , and purification , all mean that we have better ammunition to fight water scarcity than we have ever had before .
We will be the ones who need to be promoting the role of the plumber actively . Without understanding the vital contributions of plumbing and the plumber , there will never be an understanding of the risks or the value of the protection delivered effectively and efficiently by even simple plumbing approaches .
This is where industry — as represented by you here today and those yet to join the WPC — has a key role to play . We are the industry that needs to be leading the charge on the banning of lead pipes and seeking the immediate removal of all lead that comes in contact with drinking water . We are the industry that needs to be saying no more asbestos in any form .
As an industry , we have an obligation to lobby , on behalf of our communities , for the best possible access to water and sanitation and then act in ways that support our claims . As the previous speaker mentioned , we need to get noticed .
Water is life
At the WPC we have a responsibility to explain these connections to the broader community , to policy-makers and governments . We have this responsibility because we have the solutions — or at least access to them .
Technological advances in rainfall harvesting , capture and storage , water waste reduction , advances in water
February 2017 Volume 22 I Number 12 www . plumbingafrica . co . za