27
HEALTH AND SANITATION
Sudip Das (centre), with WPC deputy chairman/UA Director of Plumbing Services Thomas Bigley (left), and IAPMO chief operating officer and
executive vice president, David Viola.
Das spent the next week in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he
completed two 20-hour classes at Washtenaw Community
College that are part of the UA’s Instructor Training Program:
Methods in Teaching Water Supply Systems and Methods in
Teaching Drainage Systems.
From Michigan it was on to Buffalo, New York, where Das
and Bigley toured the John W Danforth Mechanical Co’s
fabrication shops. Das got a first-hand look at how American
contractors bid, design, fabricate, then ship piping systems
to their customers’ job sites.
Das then flew to New York City, where he stayed in Times
Square for three nights. He toured the UA Plumbers Local
1 training center and the city’s water filtration plant, as well
as a 40-storey construction site. On his final day he visited
the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Centre memorial at
ground zero.
Bigley and Das reconnected in Pittsburgh for a tour of
the Plumbers Union Local 27 training centre, followed
by a weekend kayaking, riding quads and enjoying the
Pennsylvania mountains.
They parted company in Pittsburgh, with Das flying onto
Philadelphia for a tour of the Plumbers Local 690 training
centre and several construction sites, as well as a visit to the
Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.
Das drove from Philadelphia to Annapolis, Maryland, to visit
UA headquarters with Assistant to the Director of Training
Ray Boyd. From there he was picked up by Plumbers Local
5 Business Agent Lou Spence who took him to Local 5
contractor Bowers Mechanical fab shop. He toured Bowers’
CAD and BIM departments, as well as the fabrication shop.
Das toured a few more shops and construction sites, as well
as Plumbers Local 5’s training centre. While in Washington,
DC, Das also visited a number of museums and monuments
before departing for home on 30 August.
February 2020 Volume 25 I Number 12
Das says the training he received on his visit, along with the
tours of training centres and job sites, will have a number of
positive impacts on his career and the people of India.
“I shall try to figure out how to adopt, as far as possible,
the methods of teaching using the current infrastructure,
framework and facilities available in my country,” he says.
“Also, I shall try to improve the working methodology back
home after seeing the jobsites in the USA.”
Bigley said that while he was a little apprehensive at first
about a potential language barrier between Das and him,
they communicated very well.
“We had a lot in common, not only in the plumbing industry,
but also when it came to our hobbies,” he says. “I couldn’t
be more thankful to all the UA locals who helped coordinate
all the different places to visit in their respective cities.
Without their help and commitment to the scholarship
recipients, it would be very difficult to visit all the different
locations. I hope he enjoyed his visit as much as we enjoyed
sharing our customs and culture.”
Das said his long-term career goals include educating as
many plumbers as possible, in addition to improving his
nation’s health and sanitation through access to improved
plumbing and safe sanitation.
The following article
looks at a plumber who
won an instructor training
scholarship and visited
the United States to learn
more about teaching
practices he can employ in
his home country of India.
Written by IAPMO Staff
Writer Mike Flenniken, it is
the next in a regular series
of similar articles that will
run in this magazine.
“There are many people in my country, and around the
world, without access to proper sanitation and safe potable
water,” he says. “I hope to work for them and give them
better living conditions.”
Das was highly appreciative of the hospitality he encountered
throughout his trip.
“The warm welcome I received, from the ITP to local training
centres, from job sites to the contractors’ offices and shops,
was simply unforgettable,” he says. PA
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