Water and sanitation – Don’t forget the plumbing!

In this paper, Robert Burgon describes the work of the World Plumbing Council (WPC) in the context of the contribution which the plumbing industry makes to global health. He focuses on ‘‘Health Aspects of Plumbing’’, a joint publication by WPC and the World Health Organisation (WHO) and outlines a current project between WPC and WHO to demonstrate the need to build capacity in plumbing in developing nations. The paper concludes with a reference to the role which plumbers can play as emergency responders in disaster scenarios.

In an early part of this paper it was suggested that people living in the world’s developed nations in the late 19th century possibly understood rather better the truth that good plumbing is a significant contributor to public health. Our aspirations in the early years of the 21st century must be to remedy the failures of subsequent generations and to recreate a situation, across the world, where plumbing is seen to play a major public health role. The WPC, in pursuit of its mission and objectives, will continue to demonstrate that plumbers are key players in the water supply and sanitation industry and their role, while often ignored, is critical if the integrity of professionally designed infrastructure systems are to operate efficiently and safely.