ASKI Laboratory to Become Accredited

ASKİ's Construction Quality Control Laboratory is being accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Body. The Turkish Accreditation Body (TÜRKAK) verifies whether laboratories in Turkey operate within international standards. The Construction Quality Control Laboratory under ASKİ General Directorate received accreditation after TÜRKAK conducted inspections on 20-21 December. The laboratory will become TÜRKAK-accredited within several months. ASKİ's Construction Quality Control Laboratory will become TÜRKAK-accredited without requiring follow-up inspection. Going forward, during infrastructure work, test results for thermoplastic pipes used by contractor companies in manufacturing will be checked against the "TS EN ISO/IEC 17025 General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories" standard, which is valid in developed countries. The inspection team from TÜRKAK inspected and tested the Construction Quality Control Laboratory at the facility, which also houses the İvedik Drinking Water Treatment Plant. ASKİ Deputy General Manager Baran Bozoğlu and Head of Environmental Protection and Water Basins Department Güven Ulusoy also accompanied the TÜRKAK team. The TÜRKAK team met with ASKİ laboratory personnel and provided observations on their technical competence.

Accreditation Process Took 1.5 Years

ASKİ Deputy General Manager Baran Bozoğlu made comments. Following 1.5 years of accreditation work, expressing satisfaction with the positive outcome, Bozoğlu stated: "As an institution providing water and wastewater services to Ankara residents, it is very valuable for us that quality here is being measured correctly. You cannot manage what you do not measure," he said. Bozoğlu also noted that in the coming period, laboratory staff will receive training as part of the project and state-of-the-art modern equipment will be procured for the laboratory. Bozoğlu emphasized that they met the accreditation requirements by making building improvements at lower cost.

Laboratory Quality Will Increase

Bozoğlu noted that infrastructure materials from other cities will also be tested at the laboratory in Ankara. Bozoğlu stated: "This way, both the quality of our laboratory will increase and ASKİ will generate revenue. That is, we are transforming the Construction Quality Control Laboratory into a laboratory with calibration requirements and metrological traceability. In the meantime, TÜRKAK will also regularly inspect us each year as a third party," he said.