Plumbing Africa July 2017 | Page 58

56 Associations

Certified quality plumbing products

By
IOPSA
Plumbers understand that plumbing is the conveyance of water, which means the supply of clean water and the removal of dirty water and sewerage.
Quality plumbing products suitable for the building environment are an integral part of industry’ s responsibility to ensure public health and safety when working with water— a critical resource.
It is imperative that a guideline exists as to what constitutes a good quality product suitable for use in a building. This not only governs the industry, but also creates an equitable environment for all manufacturers and suppliers to compete.
Standards such as the National Building Regulations( NBR) and Water Services Regulations( WSR) are both guidelines and regulations, which make them mandatory. In the current environment, they have little positive contribution to managing the building environment as a result of ineffective enforcement.
An imbalance is created when one of these areas is lacking or absent, such as the certification of products, further influenced by poor policing when products are installed. The consequences of such challenges are, for example, the manufacturing or supplying of poor quality products not fit for the South African plumbing environment.
This problem has a knock-on effect and may only become apparent sometime later, which makes the problem even more difficult to correct, especially when poor quality products have already been sold into an industry.
Ultimately, compliant manufacturers and suppliers are forced to compete with poor quality products while still carrying a huge cost of certifying their products. Cost sensitivity is a key factor in a competitive environment; however, it should not be at the expense or risk of the public or the sustainability of an industry.
The reality is, non-compliant products become more costeffective and inviting to the public. This also is perceived to be a competitive advantage to installers who benefit— short term— by gaining work; they do, however, lose clients in the long term due to product failure.
It is therefore crucial that the entire industry takes responsibility. The Institute of Plumbing South Africa( IOPSA) has been working closely with their manufacturing members through the manufacturers’ forum to facilitate solutions to overcome the imbalance that has been created due to lack of enforcement of products, as well as poor or non-existent product testing and certification.
Traditionally, the South African Bureau of Standards( SABS) has provided an extensive array of testing and certification. Once the product met the SABS testing and certification requirements, it could carry the SABS mark for a threeyear period. The misconception in the industry is that the SABS mark of approval is mandatory. However, the National Building Regulations( NBR) simply require that products should comply with South African National Standards( SANS), unless the SABS mark is specifically required by local bylaws.
This means that manufacturers or suppliers of products do not have to carry the SABS mark, but should prove that their products meet the minimum performance requirements of the relevant SANS standards by means of product certification.
The solutions offered for testing and certification are unable to support market demand for testing and certification, so industry naturally has begun the process of finding alternative solutions to measure their product performance in an effort to remain competitive and meet the requirements of regulations.
Consequently, IOPSA is facilitating, through industry, the development of quality testing laboratories and certification bodies. This creates opportunity for interested competitive market forces without excluding any existing testing or certification solutions.
July 2017 Volume 23 I Number 5 www. plumbingafrica. co. za