Indigenous Plumbing and Sanitisation Foundation

Eager to make a difference, in 2004 the Plumbing  and Pipe Trades Employees Union (PPTEU) began working with business and the Indigenous community to establish a program which would embrace our Indigenous brothers and sisters in remote areas of Australia, where plumbing standards were often of a very low standard.

The PPTEU put together a ground-breaking partnership with the Victorian, Western Australian and Northern Territory Aboriginal communities with the joint aims of improving sanitation standards within Indigenous communities, while at the same time offering employment and training opportunities to Indigenous Australians.

For further information on the Indigenous Apprentice Program, read here.

Improving the health and sanitation of Indigenous Australians in remote communities has been a long-standing challenge.

Unfortunately the reality for many self-administered remote Indigenous communities is that they face acute challenges in maintaining proper sanitation and clean water. This is largely due to the lack of available and skilled tradespeople, with the end result being that basic sanitation needs suffer as a result.

We believe plumbing is at the front-line of defence against disease and promoting better health in Indigenous communities.

We will strive to relieve the poverty, sickness and suffering of Aboriginal and Indigenous and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities.

We will achieve this vision by funding projects which provide apprenticeship opportunities for Indigenous people from rural and remote communities. We will also strive to fund projects where Indigenous tradespeople provide plumbing and sanitation services to remote communities.

The Indigenous Plumbing and Sanitation Foundation (IPSF) has been established to provide relief from poverty, sickness, suffering and misfortune, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Indigenous communities who are living with dangerously poor sanitation, putting them at risk of disease and sickness.

The primary objective of the Foundation is to raise funds from industry and government to provide direct relief to Indigenous communities.

For more information on the Foundation read here.