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Volunteer Plumbers will be joining a diverse team of doctors, nurses, medical technicians, dialysis specialists and other professionals headed to Ethiopia in support of a great Seattle grass-roots organization, the Seattle Anesthesia Outreach group. The patients of Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa have already benefited greatly from their previous trips, and await their return with happy anticipation.

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Read our recent announcement

As a public-private initiative, the U.S. Water Partnership (USWP) unites and mobilizes U.S.-based expertise, resources and ingenuity to address water challenges around the globe, particularly in the developing world. The U.S. Water Partnership brings together top U.S. resources to create valuable solutions that will positively impact our growing global water challenges.

Announced in March 2012, the Partnership is supported by a wide range of government agencies, academic organizations, water coalitions, NGOs and the private sector. As a single entry point into vast amount of U.S. water knowledge and expertise, the U.S. Water Partnership demonstrates U.S. leadership on global water issues, and provides an important platform for public-private collaboration to leverage assets, know-how, and investment of partner organizations and other stakeholders.

Find out more…

The objective of the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) is to monitor the inputs required to extend and sustain water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems and services via a country led-process. A more challenging secondary goal is to analyze the factors associated with progress, or lack thereof, in order to identify drivers and bottlenecks, to identify knowledge gaps and to assess strengths and challenges across countries.

The GLAAS report, implemented by WHO and published biennially, is the principal source of evidence for Member States and other major stakeholders for the High-Level Commitment Dialogue (HLCD) and to outline their commitments at the biennial Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High-Level Meetings (HLM), jointly hosted by the World Bank and UNICEF at the WB/IMF Spring Meetings – with the next planned for April 2014.

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World Plumbing Day is an international event on March 11 initiated by the World Plumbing Council celebrating the important role plumbing plays in the health and safety of modern society.

The aftermath of 2010’s devastating earthquake in Haiti and last year’s tsunami in Japan
reveals how easy it is to take for granted the availability of safe drinking water and sufficient sanitation systems — until those systems cease to function properly. History shows that great leaps in humankind’s advancement — both physically and socially — have been tied to advances in plumbing technology.

The safety and abundance of drinking water is, of course, a concern for most people all over the world, but what is not often emphasized is the work the plumbing industry contributes every day to alleviate these concerns. We would like you help in bringing a better understanding of the largely misunderstood role plumbers play in keeping folks safe and healthy each and every day.

We look forward to seeing your participation in this worthwhile event.

Mike Rowe of Mike Rowe Works and Discovery Channel speaks to the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on May 5th, 2011. He discusses the need for change in the work force of USA’s citizens to promote skilled trades as a desired job, rather than that being exclusive to jobs that requires a 4 year degree or more.

Urban poverty is growing. The cities in the developing world are overloading as millions of people each week arrive to find a way to survive. Most will be forced to set up home in makeshift slums with no safe water, sanitation, electricity or security. This is a reality right now for around one billion people. According to a U.N. report, by 2030 this figure is set to double.

These statistics are not anything new. We know about the numbers and chronic poverty in the slums. We know about the human waste, the mounting rubbish, the risks of cholera, the families crammed into tiny spaces, and the precarious shacks on landfills or by railway tracks. We just do not seem to know what to do about it.

Take the Korail slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. People have been settling here for over 30 years, and it is now the biggest slum in Dhaka. It sits on the Gulshan Lake, overlooked by one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in the capital. Women can be seen washing their dishes at the lake’s edge, just meters away from where hanging latrines discharge directly into the water.

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