To commemorate World Plumbing Day, International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation (IWSH) has announced two new project assignments that are now open for interested volunteer and sponsorship applications.

The first project announcement represents another step in the IWSH partnership with the Nepal Village Health Improvement Program, from Australian NGO Healthabitat O/S. The assignment will focus on completion of new water supply, hand washing, toilets and waste disposal systems for Laangarche Lapse School and Pancha Kanya School, which are located a short distance apart in the mountainous Sindhupalchok region northeast of capital Kathmandu.

IWSH will assign two volunteer plumbers to this latest Healthabitat O/S project, and all international travel plus local transfers, accommodation and board for the duration of the project will be fully sponsored for the selected candidates.

Healthabitat O/S program manager Dave Donald says IWSH has provided the most skilled and hard working tradespeople over the past six years to lead plumbing and other construction aspects of the projects.

“The technical expertise and energy these volunteers bring to our teams is invaluable, and we look forward to welcoming the next pairing to Sindhupalchok because the two selected school sites are in great need. Their work is going to be greatly appreciated, for the impact it will ultimately make on general public health in the surrounding community,” he says.

The second project announcement is the next instalment of the Community Plumbing Challenge, Navajo Nation program. In October 2018 the pilot IWSH-Navajo Water Project collaboration; a partnership with U.S. Water Prize-winning non-profit DigDeep delivered running water, safe wastewater disposal and a range of other building renovations to 10 households across the Baca-Prewitt chapter, in the area surrounding Thoreau, New Mexico; provided by a team of more than 30 tradespeople from across the United States, with further international volunteers joining from Australia, Canada, Ireland and South Africa.

The next collaboration is slated for early June and will see a newly-assembled international Trades Team support DigDeep’s newest community outreach across the remote region of Navajo Mountain, on the Arizona-Utah state border.

Navajo Water project director for DigDeep Emma Robbins says Navajo Mountain is the next challenge in DigDeep’s mission to bring safe, running water and sanitation to the people of the Navajo Nation.

“Our developing partnership with IWSH and their Community Plumbing Challenge program is raising the standard and quality of the home water installations we are providing, helping improve maintenance procedures, and creating further education and training opportunities. We are sharing new skills, new ideas, new perspectives … and all of these are vital as we progress together toward our next community partnership with the Navajo Mountain chapter.”

IWSH managing director Dain Hansen says World Plumbing Day was the most appropriate day to make the project announcements.

“Both are continuations of existing programs: strengthening new and existing partnerships and ensuring that real, long-term benefit for the host communities — in terms of improved access to water and sanitation enhancing living environments, impacting public health, and stopping people getting sick — is being achieved. We encourage any interested parties, whether they are young students and apprentices, experienced professional contractors, or larger companies and manufacturers, to get in touch and let us know how they would like to get involved!”