World Plumbing Council: Bringing sanitation into the 21st century

Sometimes it is hard for me to wrap my head around that there are countries that are still considered "developing" in the year 2013.

The World Plumbing Council (WPC) has sent its delegates of industry professionals to New Delhi, India for the WPC2013 India Conference, the 10^th World Plumbing Conference, to talk about the modernization of their plumbing systems. India is “a country where sanitation, health and environment are yet to receive the importance it deserves…India, on the threshold of the 21^st century, offers opportunities unlimited for every sector of the economy, and plumbing is no exception.” This is a country that has a full arsenal of nuclear weapons yet they don’t have proper sanitation. Every nation should have proper sanitation! And the WPC is taking the lead to make sure that in parts of the world this becomes a reality.

WHO estimates that 80% of the sickness in the world is attributable to waterborne diseases. Many other diseases are spread through poor hygiene practices. By improving sanitation and environmental conditions and by continuously creating awareness and educational programs, illness and death can be reduced and the quality of life enhanced substantially.

The World Plumbing Conference is an ideal platform to focus national and international attention on this issue of National Health. IPA hopes that the deliberations during the conference will lead to a sharing of ideas and innovative solutions.

The conference will also be a forum for networking at a global level among Public Health Engineering professionals. IPA is confident that these interactions will yield fresh thoughts on how to improve Environment, Health and Hygiene of the nation through Private Enterprise, Public–Private Partnership and Corporate Social Responsibility programs.

“We want to help developing countries develop water, sewer, power infrastructure that will support good hygiene. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands die each year from poor sanitation facilities. We are working on it,” said delegate Ron George, P.E., Plumb-Tech Design & Consulting.

The Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), India’s national body of plumbing professionals, welcomed the delegates to the 10^th World Plumbing Conference November 13-15, 2013.