The studies carried out by NWSDB have revealed that following as the main reasons for the poor water use efficiency in this sector,

• Poor Quality Water Fittings used
  
  
• Poor Plumbing Practices (Domestic and Industrial)

“Procurement of Quality Goods and Services to assure Sustainable Water Culture in Sri Lanka” was implemented to address these issues and various campaigns were carried out to cater the latter as below…..

As a main requirement of this program, NWSDB has updated the plumbing training modules (NVQ level 03 & 04) published by National Institute of Technical Education and used by the Technical Colleges as teaching materials highlighting the important aspects to be considered in the water industry.

As the next step, it was decided to conduct Plumber Training programmes islandwide for the practicing plumbers as well as interested parties,. In order to conduct the plumber training it was identified that there exist a shortage of Trainers in this field and hence GKWSP took the initiatives to train the Trainers and accordingly two Training of Trainers (TOT) programs were conducted with the assistance of Distance Learning Center of the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA), first one in October-November 2013 and the second one in February –March 2015. Altogether 67 trainers (Chief Engineers / Engineers / Engineering Assistants and Training Officers covering all the regions of the NWSDB) have been trained, empowering them to conduct plumber training Programs Island wide.

Plumber Training and Training Facilities

As an initial measure, on behalf of the NWSDB, Greater Kandy Water Supply Project (GKWSP) has conducted model plumber training program at Awissawella, in January 2013 successfully for 43 identified plumbers and in order to continue this program island wide, GKWSP has trained selected trainers, under two TOT programs as mentioned earlier, covering all island (eleven Regional Support Centers of the NWSDB representing nine provinces) so that the trainers could conduct the training programs as required for each province. Accordingly RSCs islandwide successfully conducted plumber training Programs and a database of trained plumbers from every corner of the island was prepared. The same can be viewed here.