NEWS
7
Harscan gets
SA Watermark listing
On 12 September, Plumbing Africa visited the
premises of Harscan, which is having its range of
different branded products listed on SA Watermark.
Harscan owner, Malcolm Harris, received the
company’s first Watermark certification from Herman
Strauss, executive director of SA Watermark, for its
Wavin plumbing products, which are already SANS
approved and JASWIC accepted.
Harscan also represents Viega (SABS approved). “The HDPE
approval was most critical because its SABS approval had
lapsed, and I wanted to test the process and stagger the
approvals of all our products. Now that this first category is
complete, I will do the Hep 2 O range of Wavin next, followed
by Viega. We want to have everything done, but it is also
time consuming,” says Harris.
“We also have a few products which are innovative that don’t
have a standard yet, and that would be the final step, albeit
requiring standards first. Particularly, we have a waterless
waste valve that forms a trap and never dries out, the HepVo,
which is ideal for places with intermittent use or low water
consumption, wherein you don’t have to rely on the water
keeping the smell out of the building.
“For hospitals, even though you have a water trap, bugs
and microbes can still swim through, but our valve is a
physical barrier so no galloping virus can ‘swim back’.
For instance, the SARS virus (in 2004) was traced back
to a hotel, the 50-floor Hanoi Gardens Towers, in Hong
Kong. The World Health Organisation did an investigation
and proved that because of the traps being blown out by
bad plumbing, the traps didn’t have water in them, and
the sewerage system vented into the rooms, where there
were air conditioners which sucked the nasties from the
sewerage system into the hotel rooms. It was found that
people who had the virus had used the bathrooms and then
jumped on planes elsewhere.
“The WHO summary at the end of their report was to place
the blame on inadequate plumbing.” This demonstrates how
important plumbing is to health.
South Africa’s standards are in desperate need of being
updated, precisely for reasons such as this. PA
November 2019 Volume 25 I Number 9
From left: Herman Strauss, executive director of SA
Watermark, and Harscan owner, Malcolm Harris.
“We put 2 000 of those in Soccer City, which was part of
a ‘rational’ design, and they work perfectly. We sell these
into hospitals and laboratories because it keeps the odours
out even in tough, windy conditions which otherwise might
create a condition that could compromise the trap. But the
biggest use is where there is intermittent use, like guest
houses and hotels, for whom it is a problem-saver and a
life-saver. It’s recognised all over the world, and approved in
Europe, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere – but sadly,
the standards in South Africa have not been updated.
The waterless waste valve that forms a
trap and never dries out.
www.plumbingafrica.co.za