World Plumbing Day is celebrated worldwide every year on 11 March
World Plumbing Day is an initiative by the World Plumbing Council created in 2009. The first-ever World Plumbing Day was held in 2010 on March 11.
World Plumbing Day is celebrated around the world every year on March 11. The day aims to spread awareness of the importance of plumbing and plumbers in protecting public health and improving access to clean water and sanitation facilities.
The World Plumbing Council’s hoped to create a day in World Plumbing Day where worldwide the community could reflect on the vital role plumbing has played and continues to play in:
Protecting public health
Share knowledge and collaboration
Improve the quality and access to fresh potable water
Improve the quality and access to safe sanitation
Plumbing saves lives by improving the world we all live in
Even though we all use our plumbing infrastructure daily, no matter where we are, it is invariably taken for granted as it’s just part of everyday life. World Plumbing Day is the day you need to realise that life without plumbing would be unimaginable.
From the moment we rise from bed in the morning, we are use plumbing. Using the toilet, taking a shower, drinking a coffee, drinking a glass of water, washing our clothes and watering our gardens. All of these tasks are only possible thanks to trained and qualified plumbers.
There are still millions of people worldwide who lack access to basic plumbing amenities. Life without basic plumbing leads to lowered living standards and severe health consequences.
Adequate, functional and effective plumbing is also essential to helping the environment. With increased water shortages and droughts worldwide, sustainable and energy-efficient plumbing are paramount to helping the planet.
Facts about world plumbing
Plumbing advancements help the environment
Plumbing improves the world
World Plumbing Day is a call to action for people across the industry to show pride in what they do and the part they play in protecting the community’s health.
The key aim is to promote the link between good plumbing with sanitation and human and environmental health.
The great sacrificial anode replacement rip-off resurfaces every few years.
The routine invariably starts in the middle of the day with a knock on the door by a friendly “salesman”. After warm greetings, they state they are in your neighbourhood doing some work and that a neighbour had suggested they do the same “free check” on your hot water service.
This unsolicited pitch or a variation of it is the signature pitch of conmen who prey on unsuspecting homeowners, especially the elderly creating fear about their hot water tank. Commonly they display a great deal of empathy and concern and are only doing the “free check” of your hot water service as one of your neighbours had already had theirs repaired and were concerned for you.
The “free check” invariably concludes with you urgently needing a sacrificial anode replacement. If you have water stains on your hot water tank similar to the photo below then you have a leak in the tank.
What Is A Leaking Sacrificial Anode
As you can see below this tank needed replacement as it was leaking around the sacrificial anode. Installing a new sacrificial anode will achieve nothing.
A leaking hot water tank cannot be repaired.
Even if your hot water tank is not leaking the friendly salesman will assure you it is about to start leaking if you don’t replace the sacrificial anode now.
To back it up he will have information from the manufacturers about replacing the sacrificial anode backed up by horror photos.
Does A Sacrificial Anode Need Replacing?
Yes, your sacrificial anode on your hot water service should be checked at least every 5 years.
But if it has never been checked or replaced and your hot water service is over 10 years old you are wasting your time replacing it as the damage has already been done to your steel storage tank.
The photo above illustrates perfectly a brand new sacrificial anode at the top of the photo. The sacrificial anode in the bottom of the photo was removed after nine years inside a hot water tank.
Basically your hot water tank is prevented from rusting away by the sacrificial anode. The anode corrodes instead of the steel tank which is the cathode. This principle of electrolytic corrosion control is described as cathodic protection. Hence the term sacrificial anode. As a cathodic surface cannot rust, the steel hot water tank is protected as long as the anode is whole and working.
These days the majority of hot water tanks last around 12 to 15 years. The sacrificial anode prolongs the life of your hot water tank. But once the anode becomes ineffective the steel tank is no longer a cathode and begins to rust from the inside. Once the rusting process begins, it takes about 3 to 5 years for it to eat away through the steel tank wall.
Who Can Replace A Sacrificial Anode?
As with any plumbing fixture, only a licenced plumber working for a QBCC licensed plumbing contractor can replace a sacrificial anode.
Take it from me knocking on your door and cold-calling is not a professional or viable way to market or operate a plumbing business.
In all likelihood, the person knocking on your door is not a licensed plumber or a licensed plumbing contractor. Simply ask them to produce their licenses. In our experience, they are not a plumber but ordinary old con artists who have no experience or knowledge in servicing a hot water service.
With all the uncertainly during this ongoing COVID-19 crisis, it is critical Gold Coast homeowners and businesses don’t fall into the trap of using so-called handymen or unlicensed plumbers. In reality, there is no such occupation categorised as unlicensed plumbers. Every person classified as a plumber is licensed by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission or QBCC.
All individuals and companies must hold a QBCC licence for any building works that involve any work that is:
Plumbing
Drainage
Gas Fitting
Your plumbing is not a simplistic plaything and worldwide is classified as critical public health infrastructure. All work undertaken on any aspect of your plumbing, drainage or gas infrastructure is legally required to be undertaken by appropriately licensed individuals and companies.
All plumbers frequently experience fixing up after a handyman who makes out that unlicensed plumbers exist and convinces homeowners he can undertake plumbing works as long as it’s under $3300 of value. This is a complete lie by opportunistic unlicensed scammers who put your families health at risk. The benchmark value for undertaking plumbing, drainage or gas work is $0 and always has been.
Any plumbing, drainage and gasfitting work is essential to ensuring the health and safety of the entire community. This is critically important with the COVIC-19 health pandemic we are currently facing.
Every aspect of the plumbing, drainage and gas trades are administered by a strict licensing and legislative regime. This ensures every person in these trades holds the relative QBCC licences that are legally required. This, in turn, ensures the safety and protection of the entire community through the provision of clean, safe drinking water, sanitary drains and sewers to dispose of wastewater, and gas pipes and appliances that are fit for purpose.
We all agree that using a licensed plumber or gas fitter can appear expensive, but it is an investment that protects your families health. Using an unlicensed plumber can null and void your insurance coverage plus leave you with possible legal and financial implications.
Especially now demand to sight the QBCC licences visually. A QBCC occupational licence enables the person to carry out the work physically. A QBCC contractor licence allows the person to engage in contracting for the work.
Can plumbing work be undertaken by unlicensed plumbers or handymen?
Repairing or replacing a drop valve washer, float valve washer or suction cup rubber in a toilet cistern
Replacing caps or covers to ground-level inspection openings on a sanitary drain
Cleaning or maintaining a ground-level grate for a trap on a sanitary drain
Installing or maintaining an irrigation or lawn watering system downstream from a tap, isolating valve or backflow prevention device on the supply pipe for the watering system
Repairing or maintaining an irrigation system for the disposal of effluent from a greywater use facility or on-site sewage facility
Fire protection work for testing plumbing carried out by a holder of a fire protection occupational licence or another QBCC licence
Incidental unskilled tasks such as excavating or backfilling a trench
Many of these tasks are much more complicated than they appear. Mixer taps, for example, can be extremely complicated just to dismantle and technically they have no washer so must always be worked on by a licensed plumber.
Despite social media saying yes you can we can guarantee it is entirely illegal for anyone other than a licensed plumber to install a bidet seat or a douche spray to a toilet.
Checking a plumbers licence
Prior to letting anyone commence work on your plumbing, drainage or gas ask them for their plumbers’ licence as they are legally obliged to produce it for you if requested.
For extra assurance go the QBCC website to find out more about a licensee you can use their online licensee search, or search their occupational licence.
Just remember there is no such occupational listing called unlicensed plumbers in Australia in any state or territory.
Listed below is unregulated plumbing work that can be performed by an unlicensed plumber in accordance with the 