wpc
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<< Continued from page 19
Breakaway session: water
The sessions on water were
chaired by Plumbers Without
Borders president, Domenico
DiGregorio. DiGregorio gave an
account of how vice-chair of the
body, Fred Schilling, travelled to
Haiti to assist with community
sanitation. Schilling had been
struck by the fact that no sewer
system or other infrastructure
is in place, and implored
Domenico DiGregorio, president of
improvements to be made within Plumbers Without Borders, chairing
that context. US manufacturer
the Water breakaway session.
American Standard partnered
with Plumbers Without Borde rs to help promote the Safe Toilet (SaTo™) pan,
resulting in American Standard shipping 8 000 of these pans into Haiti and so
the first retrofit took place in the earthquake devastated Caribbean country.
This has since had an amazing effect on the health of Haiti’s population of
about 10 million people. Only two million of their people have access to any
kind of sanitation at all.
Evert Swanepoel from the Copper Development Association Africa discussed the
anti-microbial effects of copper as it relates to cleaning water. He focused on
rural water supply, rivers and boreholes, as well as rainwater harvesting. Water
reticulation in rural Africa is non-existent, as it is in many developing countries,
such as India. Rural communities obtain their water from rivers often polluted
by animals, people, or poorly maintained water treatment plants upstream.
However, people in the rural areas of India have been storing contaminated
water in copper pots for ages, and after leaving it in the pots for 16 hours,
all harmful pathogens are killed and the water is left drinkable. Swanepoel
explained the conditions needed to remove all pathogens from water when
using a copper rod. Adapting the copper device principle to cleaning water
in rainwater tanks is being researched. Laboratory tests have proved that
copper kills pathogens in drinking water, but a fail-safe system to harness this
remarkable property of copper still has to be introduced, Swanepoel said.
Chair of the British Plumbing Employers Council (BPEC), George Thomson,
spoke on the topic “Doing a lot with a little: connecting plumbing with
communities in need”. A board of volunteer directors governs this small
certification body, based in the Midlands (UK). Its focus is on raising the
standards of plumbing in the UK and elsewhere. BPEC’s key role has always
been about standards, skills, and training in the industry. BPEC is unlike most
organisations, as its surplus funds are reinvested in the plumbing industry
through its charity. “We don’t ask for any donations,” Thomson said. Since
2012, the Life Award has supported different projects across the world, raising
the standards of plumbing to bring about real and sustainable improvements.
More than GBP130 000 of funding has been provided to support projects
overseas and across the UK. The average amount of funding provided per
project is about GPB5 000–10 000. This is a relatively small amount of
money, but the difference it can make is huge, he said. “An awful lot can be
achieved with relatively little funding,” said Thomson. PA
November 2016 Volume 22 I Number 9