This week, U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Darin LaHood (R-IL), Xochitl Torres-Small (D-NM), and Jackie Walorski (R-IN) announced the creation of the International Water and Sanitation Caucus. The Caucus seeks to bring greater attention to the global need for clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). These issues are more critical now than ever before. As Reps. Blumenauer and LaHood noted in a recent joint op-ed, three billion people don’t have access to clean water for washing their hands, one of the single most important measures to counteract the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The Caucus recognizes that access to WASH requires greater prioritization and coordination by the U.S. federal government. Seventeen federal agencies interface with these issues currently, and the U.S. spends less than one-hundredth of a percent of its budget to advance them. Given the public health, economic, and security ramifications that stem from inadequate access to clean water globally, the Caucus will help unify and focus the U.S. government’s efforts.

At the International Code Council, we applaud these efforts and are excited to be active partners with the U.S. Congress and federal agencies in promoting safe, clean water. We are contributing by constantly improving our codes and standards, like our International Plumbing Code, International Residential Code, International Green Construction Code, and Rainwater Harvesting Standard, which address water quality, sanitation, reuse, and efficiency. Through the growing international adoption of our codes and standards and our plumbing product certification program, which certifies products to normative documents in the U.S. and abroad, we’re increasing access to WASH across the globe.

We welcome the Caucus’s successful launch and look forward to partnering with them to advance our shared missions.

If you’re looking to get more involved in the plumbing, mechanical, fuel gas, and swimming pool community, enroll in the Code Council’s PMG Membership Council today.