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HEALTH AND SANITATION
WPC scholarship winner gains
knowledge to share back home
By Mike Flenniken
World Plumbing Council (WPC) scholarship winner, Sudip Das,
a plumbing engineer and trainer from Kolkata, India, recently
completed a three-week educational trip to the US to learn more
about teaching methods that he can use in his home country.
Das, a manager in planning and project coordination,
is involved in a number of prestigious residential
and commercial projects in eastern India, ranging
from hospitality to healthcare. Das also teaches
at various colleges, trains competitors and serves
as a judge for WorldSkills and the Indian Plumbing
Professionals League.
“This really meant a lot to me,” Das says of winning the
2018 WPC United Association Instructor Training Programme
Scholarship. “When there is one scholarship [in my category]
per year, it has a huge impact on anybody’s life.”
WPC Deputy Chairman Thomas Bigley, the Director of
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Plumbing Services for the UA and an IAPMO Board of
Directors member, accompanied Das on much of the trip.
Das arrived in Chicago on 6 August, and while there he
toured the 1 191-foot-high (363m) Vista Tower, the city’s
third-tallest building. He was given a demonstration of the
installation of cast-iron pipe joined by lead and oakum and
the soldering of copper pipes, in addition to other American
plumbing practices. He toured the Plumbers Local 130
training facility with Business Manager James Coyne and
Pipefitters Local 597 with Training Coordinator Monty Kimes.
While in Chicago, Das met with IAPMO Chief Operating
Officer and Executive Vice President David Viola, who gave
him ASSE books and Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) books.
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February 2020 Volume 25 I Number 12