Health and sanitation
27
India’s plumbing
challenges answered
By Mike Flenniken at IAPMO
Looking to build on the success of the 2015 Community Plumbing
Challenge in Nashik, India, the IWSH — IAPMO Group’s charitable
foundation — is collaborating with the Indian government
to renovate sanitation facilities in village schools while also
providing valuable plumbing experience to young students.
IWSH recently sponsored the construction of a full
girls’ bathroom at the Government Higher Secondary
School in Palayad, Kollam, located in southern India.
Swathi Saralaya, manager of Technical & Training for
IAPMO India, said school officials approached IWSH
about converting the small, unused room adjacent to
the girls’ toilet facility.
The school previously only had 13 toilet units for 500
students and 22 staff members, and relied on well water
— which tended to dry out during the summer — for its
water supply for all purposes.
The work on the girls’ facility was completed by 23
students aged 17 and older, who are part of the Kerala
government’s State Skill Development Project, whose goal
is to equip its young population with the skills necessary
to work in a variety of innovative sectors to deal with the
state’s unemployment problem. The project includes both
the Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) and the
Additional Skill Enhancement Programme.
As part of ASAP, IAPMO India provides an ‘assistant
plumber’ training course, which more than 1 600
students have taken since 2013. The course is offered
at government schools known as ‘skill development
centres’, which are spread throughout Kerala. Once
the students have taken 150 hours of theory and
practical training, they are sent to various sites for a
150-hour internship.
Under the supervision of Rajan Tharal, IAPMO India’s
trainer, assistant plumber students have already repaired
the flushing system for the urinals in the boys’ bathroom,
and installed a water supply to the boys’ bathroom using
the school’s PTA funds.
Russ Chaney
In the spirit of the sharing
of unique experiences
that shape the plumbing
industries in our respective
nations, the following article
looks at International Water,
Sanitation and Hygiene
Foundation (IWSH) efforts
to improve sanitation
facilities in Indian villages.
This is the next in a regular
series of similar articles that
will feature in this magazine.
Unlike the United States, plumbers in India are not
required to be certified and plumbing installations do
not have to follow a particular code, Saralaya said. “If
I am self-employed as a plumber, no one is going to
inspect my installation or look what I have done,” she
said. “There is the National Building Code of India,
Students practice a
toilet installation.
Continued on page 29 >>
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July 2017 Volume 23 I Number 5