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FEATURE
WELS is back onstream , again !
By
Rory Macnamara
Since 2013 the Water Efficiency Labelling System ( WELS ) has been a discussion point . The Department of Water & Sanitation ( DWS ) and all its past names , National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications ( NRCS ) and SABS have all been treating this ‘ thing ’ like a burning coal and no one , official that is , ending up doing anything with it .
“ Typical ” one might say , “ expected ” some others may say , and whatever one may say it took Plumbing Africa to do something positive .
It is so that DWS created a Water Master Plan that could not / cannot be implemented because they have no money ! Squandered by a certain cabinet minister *.
Nonetheless when I noticed that WELS was scheduled for 2026 , we would have run out of potable water way before that , and informed DWS and SABS of that fact especially in the light of dysfunctional municipalities .
Just having experienced the disastrous advert of Energy Efficiency standard where very few manufacturers were involved , we called a meeting of tap and mixer manufacturers together to hear what they currently saw as issues and suggestions . We enlisted the experienced Herman Strauss to facilitate the meeting because of his SABS experience and broad knowledge of the topic . A follow-up report was issued .
In the meantime , we were speaking with ISO PC 316 and finally , SABS , together with a technical advisor who attended the ISO meeting . This brings us up to 2019 when SABS now had the advantage of learning from ISO WELS committee , a technical advisor and a third person ( not sure what he was doing there ) and could start implementing . One point that came out that whilst there are 21 countries applying some sort of WELS scheme , there were few similarities , and it would be necessary for South Africa to come up with its own WELS . Silence up until now !
www . plumbingafrica . co . za @ plumbingonline @ plumbingonline @ PlumbingAfricaOnline January 2022 Volume 27 I Number 11