Young talent will tackle inaugural Water Innovation Challenge

The World Health Organization has declared plumbers the most important front line health workers around the globe. While many parts of the world enjoy clean water from modern sanitation technology and water systems provided by professional plumbers, many other parts remain trapped in a vicious circle of poor health and hygiene conditions due to the lack of effective water management expertise.

In an attempt to raise awareness of this issue by connecting to the WorldSkills Competition format, WorldSkills Foundation (WSF) are launching a pilot event – Water Innovation Challenge – which will be hosted 3-5 June 2014 at ITE College East (Institute of Technical Education), Singapore. This event will bring together a group of young, international, multi-discipline teams to participate in hands-on design challenges and development of a series of real and innovative solutions for emerging water and sanitation problems in Nepal and Bangladesh: the locations of Healthabitat Sanitation Studio projects which continue to develop with support of WSF.

Organized by World Plumbing Council and International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), teams from Skills USA and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) will contest our inaugural Water Innovation Challenge, representing United States of America and Australia respectively. The event will demonstrate ways in which solutions developed by the young plumbing apprentices can make a major difference to the improvement of quality of life, health, hygiene and sanitation in the focus communities. The participants will have the chance to visit Nepal and Bangladesh to implement the solutions that they develop at the Challenge, in collaboration with Healthabitat.

A special thank you to ITE for hosting this event at their campus and giving their support to further innovation in vocational education as part of Singapore International Water Week (SIWW). 

Find out more about SIWW www.internationalwaterweek.com