Find WSP Resources

This document describes development of a Water Safety Plan with a background focus on Africa.

Describes the formulation of a Water Safety Plan by Maynilad Water Services, Inc. Philippines.

Climate change is important to consider in all aspects of utility operations and planning because it can impact both the water resources as well as the infrastructure necessary to provide clean and safe water. The Climate Ready Water Utilities initiative is a practical and easy to use tool developed by EPA to assists the drinking water, waste water and stormwater utilities in understanding and addressing climate change risks and impacts as well as preparing operators systems’ for the impacts of climate change.

Provides a template WSP for urban water supply system in Bhutan based on the WSP manual. Contains text and tables as examples, which should be reviewed and revised to reflect system-specific conditions.

Under AusAid funding, WHO supported WSP implementation in Bhutan. This case study reports on key facts of the WSPs, and describes the status of water supply in Bhutan.

This case study describes the study of the Composite Correction Programme (CCP) in three different cities in India to prepare for the implementation of Water Safety Plans. CCP is a water treatment plant optimization program that improves water treatment operation with limited capital investment by optimizing particle removal from water treatment plants.

Rapid gravity filters are used extensively in many waterworks across the world where they provide a critical part of the water purification process. This document summarises the basic functions and operation of such filters and identifies possible risks to water quality which need to be assessed and managed as part of a treatment water safety plan.

This document is a technical paper following the "Spanish town Jamaica Case study". It describes the lessons learned from the development of the Water Safety Plan for the Spanish town water supply system in Jamaica.

This text provides guidance on the chemical safety of drinking-water. Chemical contaminants of drinking-water are often considered a lower priority than microbial contaminants, because adverse health effects from chemical contaminants are generally associated with long-term exposures, whereas the effects from microbial contaminants are usually immediate. Nonetheless, chemicals in water supplies can cause very serious problems. The objective of this text is to help users at national or local level to establish which chemicals in a particular setting should be given priority in developing strategies for risk management and monitoring of chemicals in drinking-water. The document will be useful to public health authorities, those responsible for setting standards and for surveillance of drinking-water quality, and to water supply agencies responsible for water quality management. In particular, this publication will be applicable in settings where information on actual drinking-water quality is limited, which is the case in many developing countries and in rural areas of some developed countries.

Tool developed to support the development and implementation of WSPs, systematically highlighting the areas where progress is being made and opportunities for improvement.

Under AusAid funding, WHO supported WSP implementation in 10 urban systems in Bangladesh. This case study reports on WSP facts, and provides a description of the status of urban and rural water supply in Bangladesh.

Under AusAid funding, WHO supported WSP implementation in Vietnam. This case study highlights key WSP facts, and describes the water supply situation and regulation of WSP in Vietnam

This document summarizes the management of risk from microbial regrowth in distribution systems through optimized chlorine disinfection. Considerations is also given to the potential for formation of disinfection by-products. Strategies for controlling these risks are presented.

This document describes the learnings from water safety plan development and implementation by Rand Water in South Africa, providing valuable field experiences from the process.

This document sets out information which allows water suppliers and others to work together to minimise the risk of backsiophange (that is, the reverse flow condition created by a difference in water pressures that causes water and associated contaminants to flow back into drinking-water distribution pipes).

This publication describes the methods used in the surveillance of drinking-water quality in the light of the special problems of small-community supplies, particularly in developing countries, and outlines the strategies necessary to ensure that surveillance is effective. It is also concerned with the linkage between surveillance and remedial action and with the form that remedial action should take.

This document describes a preliminary economic assessment of the Koror-Airai, Palau drinking water safety plan. The information generated is to be used to inform stakeholders in Palau of the rewards from supporting the DWSP approach, demonstrating the potential benefits of investing in the Plan.

This paper describes an economic cost-benefit analysis of the Koror-Airai drinking water safety plan from Palau to demonstrate the value to society of the drinking water safety planning approach in the long term. The cost-benefit analysis for implementing the Koror-Airai drinking water safety plan showed that a return of US$ 6.00 was expected on every US$ 1.00 invested towards implementing the plan. The case study provides an effective advocacy tool for the promotion of drinking water safety planning both in the Pacific region and globally.

This document highlights water quality risks from supplies that do not continuously supply water and outlines examples of measure to control these risks.

This document describes the WSP implementation process in New Caledonia (French territory in the Pacific Ocean) for 13 municipalities that started in 2008. It describes the risk assessment and management tools used, the benefits achieved, the challenges and solutions to those challenges and the overall lessons learned.

The Guidelines for drinking-water quality is an authoritative basis for the setting of national regulations and standards for water safety in support of public health. It provides guidance on ways of implementing its recommendations of contextual hazard identification and risk management, including catchment-to-consumer water safety plans. The Guidelines position WSPs as a core element of the Framework for Safe Drinking-water and outline the principles and key elements of a WSP for policy-makers.

Before implementation of a WSP it is important to clearly identify the expected benefits and the associated costs both of which could be significant. This will help secure the support of senior management, ensure that sufficient resources are made available and allow much more targeted and efficient implementation. The actual benefits and costs of WSP implementation will vary considerably from utility to utility. This document sets out a summary of the issues that need to be taken into account.

This case study describes the development of Water Safety Plans in small community water supplies in South Africa. It describes the previous assessment methods as well as the eleven steps taken to develop and implement the WSP.

This text describes the processes involved in the design, installation and maintenance of effective plumbing systems. It also examines the microbiological, chemical, physical and financial risks associated with plumbing and emphasizes the importance of measures to conserve supplies of safe drinking-water. It is aimed at administrators and plumbers working in areas that are served by a mains drinking-water supply or sewerage system, or are about to install a mains drinking-water supply or sewerage system.

Egypt has accomplished the first draft of WSP at 2013, via cooperation between the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater and the VNG - International, this abstract represent the current situation of WSP in Egypt.

This checklist is conceived as an on-site, concise tool to support the Egyptian Water Regulatory Agency (EWRA) inspectors in performing a comprehensive audit of drinking water treatment plants. It covers both management and technical aspects of service provision in assuring adequate level of performance for health and environmental protection. The list is composed of 8 sections, encompassing:
- identification and service data
- local (outside) circumstances and security issues
- organization, human resources, procedures and training
- workplace safety, environmental and equipment conditions
- operations and maintenance
- power supply and ancillary services
- drinking water network
- laboratory, reporting and monitoring data

This water safety plan (WSP) template was developed to support the integration of climate risks into the WSP approach in rural areas of the United Rep. of Tanzania. Examples are presented on how to complete the template, and the information should be considered and customized to the local context.

This template is  based on WHO EURO (2014) Water safety plan: a field guide to improving drinking-water safety in small communities, but adapted to the local context.

This resource was developed as part of the Department for International Development (DFID, UK)-funded project on “Building adaptation to climate change in health in least developed countries through resilient WASH” which was implemented from 2013-2018 in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal and Tanzania.

Several Travel-associated Legionnaires’ disease (TALD) cases occur annually in Europe. Except from the most obvious sites (cooling towers and hot water systems), infections can also be associated with recreational, water feature, and garden areas of hotels. This argument is of great interest to better comprehend the colonization and to calculate the risk to human health of these sites. From July 2000–November 2017, the public health authorities of the Island of Crete (Greece) inspected 119 hotels associated with TALD, as reported through the European Legionnaires’ Disease Surveillance Network. Five hundred and eighteen samples were collected from decorative fountain ponds, showers near pools and spas, swimming pools, spa pools, garden sprinklers, drip irrigation systems (reclaimed water) and soil. Of those, 67 (12.93%), originating from 43 (35.83%) hotels, tested positive for Legionella (Legionella pneumophila serogroups 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15 and non-pneumophila species (L. anisa, L. erythra, L. taurinensis, L. birminghamensis, L. rubrilucens). A Relative Risk (R.R.) > 1 (p < 0.0001) was calculated for chlorine concentrations of less than 0.2 mg/L (R.R.: 54.78), star classification (<4) (R.R.: 4.75) and absence of Water Safety Plan implementation (R.R.: 3.96). High risk (≥104 CFU/L) was estimated for pool showers (16.42%), garden sprinklers (7.46%) and pool water (5.97%).

Beautiful short film on how to achieve safe drinking-water by Björn Weber, Oliver Meinborn and Grimme-price winner Ute Hilgeford. Launched by the World Health Organization on World Water Day 2019.

The film-makers accompany a community in the mountains of Tajikistan – where water safety plans have been introduced for the first time in Central Asia. It is a group of citizens who take matters into their own hands. An inspiring story of how a village invests their funeral fund on safer drinking-water.

These training materials have been developed by the South-East Asia Regional Office of WHO to be used either to train trainers or to train operators of water supply utilities or sector stakeholders. They are intended for use by governments, NGOs, private sector, academic institutions and individuals. They may be used intensively over three or five days or included in longer educational programs either as part of academic courses or as part of continuing professional development training. They comprise:
- Presenters Guide,
- Participant’s Handbook,
- PowerPoint slides notes for presenter and PowerPoint Handouts for participants,
- Worksheets and other resources for participants
- Table group worksheets for use during the training programme.

This document provides guidance on developing and implementing a WSP auditing scheme, covering such topics as the aim and role of auditing, auditor training and certification, audit criteria, audit timing and frequency and audit reporting. The guidance document includes examples, tips, tools and case studies, and it serves as a practical resource for policy makers, government bodies responsible for drinking-water regulation or surveillance and water suppliers implementing WSPs.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2FkFK3Kgbo[/embed]

Small-scale systems are an important component of water supply in the WHO European Region, and Water Safety Plans (WSPs) are regarded the most effective approach to ensuring continuous provision of safe drinking-water.

The above is a short promotional video on WSPs in the WHO European Region.