WPC chairman inaugurates 1st international plumbing conference

Mumbai, Feb 11 (UNI) World Plumbing Council (WPC) chairman George Bliss III inaugurated the three-day sixth Indian Plumbing Conference at the Bombay Exhibition Centre here today.

He also released ''The Uniform Plumbing Code-India'', published by the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), on the occasion.

Welcoming the Uniform Code of Plumbing for India, Mr Bliss said '' This document is a result of collaborative effort by volunteers from the IPA and would open a new era of plumbing system in the country.'' He said the WPC would continue its support for standardized products, training and services in India's Rs 15,000 crore industry.

Mr Bliss told the audience, comprising domestic and international industry leaders, that plumbing was not just limited to a house or a building but broader issues like water conservation and protection of the environment.

''We have worked closely at the global level with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on safe water project,'' he said.

Stressing on the importance of plumbing industry, he said in the United States, the plumbing industry has been looking into securing vital installations like water reservoirs from contanimation and bio-chemical attacks from terrorists.

The conference also saw presentations by other industry leaders on the various issues like the industry-sanitation, types of plumbing products and environmental issues.

''In the coming financial year, we will focus on various aspects of water -- its supply, treatment, containment, pumping, piping and the Public Health Engineering (PHE),'' IPA chairman Gurmeet Singh Arora told UNI.

According to World Bank figures, only 30 per cent of the world's population have access to flushing toilets, 1.1 billion have no access to safe drinking water, 2.6 billion have no proper sanitation and the number of diarrhoea cases can be reduced by 20 per cent with sanitised plumbing.

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