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The World Health Organization has recommended Water Safety Plans (WSPs), a holistic risk assessment and risk management approach, for drinking-water suppliers across low-, middle- and high-income countries, since publishing its 2004 Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality. While rapid WSP adoption has occurred, capacity is still catching up to implementation needs. Many countries and regions lack case examples, legal requirements, and training resources for WSPs, corresponding to widespread capacity shortfall in the water supply sector. We undertook a comprehensive review of the literature on capacity building and training for WSPs, with the goal of providing recommendations for multiple stakeholder groups at the scales of individual utilities, national governments, and intermediate units of governance. We propose a WSP training taxonomy and discuss it in relation to the stages of learning (introduction, practice, and reinforcement); describe the importance of customizing training to the target group, local language and circumstances; highlight the relevance of auditing for evaluating change over time; and call for robust methods to monitor WSP capacity development.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) initiated the Water Safety Plans (WSP), which is to be considered as a part of the WHO or other guidelines or directives on drinking water quality. The WSP asks for an identification of risks, which could affect water safety and human health in every stage of the water supply. It is also necessary, however, to identify measures, which minimise and manage the risks have to be identified. A WSP should be discussed, developed and implemented with involvement of all stakeholders. The paper give an introduction into this important issue.

Climate-resilient water safety plans (CR-WSPs) extend the traditional WSP framework by also identifying and managing climate-related impacts on water supply systems to strengthen resilience. This compilation of information on hazardous events and their causes, including those related to climate impacts, aims to support practitioners, particularly water suppliers, health agencies and consultants, in implementing CR-WSPs. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list, and may need to be adapted for application in the local context.

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%).

Aims: The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended Water Safety Plans (WSPs)
since 2004 as a means to reduce drinking water contamination and risks to human health.
These risk management programs have shown promise across several potential areas of
evaluation, such as economic benefits and regulatory compliance. Since WSPs are largely
carried out by people who interact with water treatment equipment and processes, operational
performance indicators may be key to understanding the mechanisms behind desirable WSP
impacts such as water quality and public health improvement.
Method: This study reports performance measures collected at a WSP implementation
location in southwestern France over several years.
Results: Quantitative assessment of performance measures supported qualitative reports from
utility managers. Results indicate significantly reduced duration of low-chlorine events at one
production facility and a significant decrease in customer complaints related to water quality,
manifesting reported improvements in operational performance and the customer service
culture.
Conclusion: The findings demonstrate some success stories and potential areas of future
performance tracking. Cyclical iteration of the WSP can help to achieve continuous quality
improvement. Successfully applied evaluation criteria such as the number of water quality
complaints or alarm resolution time might be useful across other locations.

This document presents case studies from lower and higher income settings around the world that highlight O&M benefits resulting from WSP implementation. These case studies contribute to a growing body of information on the outcomes of water safety planning and may be useful in building support for WSPs among water sector senior managers, operational staff and other stakeholders.

This framework provides the strategic blueprint to develop a climate orientated risk assessment and management approach for drinking-water supplies, from catchment to consumer.

Considered global best practice, WHO advocates for the WSP approach as the most consistent means to ensure the safe and reliable supply of safe drinking-water. Adapted to the Ethiopian context, this document outlines a roadmap for the national scale-up of climate resilient WSPs.

This training toolkit aims to support  roll-out of climate resilient WSPs in Nepal by capacitating national trainers. The training materials are based on international (WHO) and national (Department of Water Supply & Sanitation) best practices and experiences.

The training toolkit contains a “Facilitators handbook”, “Participants workbook” and presentations, to support the successful and consistent delivery of the national climate resilient WSP training program.

These guidelines have been developed to support urban water supply schemes in Nepal to development and implement climate resilient WSPs.

Based on international best practice and Nepal's Department of Water Supply & Sanitation experiences, these guidelines have been developed to support rural water supply schemes to development and implement an effective climate resilient WSP in rural settings.

[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.

This study investigated the effectiveness of Water Safety Plans (WSP) implemented in 99 water supply systems across 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. An impact assessment methodology including 36 indicators was developed based on a conceptual framework proposed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and before/after data were collected between November 2014 and June 2016. WSPs were associated with infrastructure improvements at the vast majority (82) of participating sites and to increased financial support at 37 sites. In addition, significant changes were observed in operations and management practices, number of water safety-related meetings, unaccounted-for water, water quality testing activities, and monitoring of consumer satisfaction. However, the study also revealed challenges in the implementation of WSPs, including financial constraints and insufficient capacity. Finally, this study provided an opportunity to test the impact assessment methodology itself, and a series of recommendations are made to improve the approach (indicators, study design, data collection methods) for evaluating WSPs.

Water Safety Plans (WSPs), recommended by the World Health Organization since 2004, can help drinking water suppliers to proactively identify potential risks and implement preventive barriers that improve safety. Few studies have investigated long-term impacts of WSPs, such as changes in drinking water quality or public health; however, some evidence from high-income countries associates WSP implementation with a reduction in diarrheal
disease. To validate the previously observed linkages between WSPs and health outcomes, this time series
study examined site-specific relationships between water-related exposures and acute gastroenteritis rates at three locations in France and Spain, including the role of WSP status. Relationships between control or exposure variables and health outcomes were tested using Poisson regression within generalized additive models. Controls included suspected temporal trends in disease reporting. Exposures included temperature, precipitation, raw water quality, and finished water quality (e.g., turbidity, free chlorine). In France, daily acute gastroenteritis cases were tracked using prescription reimbursements; Spanish data aggregated monthly acute gastroenteritis hospital visits. The models identified several significant relationships between indicators of exposure and acute gastroenteritis. Lag times of 6–9 days (including transit time) were most relevant for hydrological indicators (related to precipitation, runoff, and flow) at the two French sites, indicative of viral pathogens. Flush events (defined as surface runoff after a two-week antecedent dry period) linked to nonpoint source pollution were associated with a 10% increase in acute gastroenteritis rates at one location supplied by surface water. Acute gastroenteritis rates were positively associated with elevated turbidity average or maximum values in finished water at locations supplied by both surface and groundwater, by about 4% per 1-NTU increase in the two-week moving average of daily maxima or about 10% per 0.1 NTU increase in the prior month’s average value. In some
cases, risk appeared to be mitigated by WSP-related treatment interventions. Our results suggest drinking water exposure is associated with some potentially preventable gastrointestinal illness risk in high-income regions.

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.

Improved water safety management, as addressed by the Sustainable Development Goals, can be aided by Water Safety Planning, a risk-assessment and risk-management approach introduced
by the World Health Organization and implemented to date in 93 countries around the globe. Yet, this approach still encounters some challenges in practice, including that of securing collaboration among the broad range of stakeholders involved. This paper presents a role-playing game designed to foster stakeholder collaboration in Water Safety Plans (WSP). In this role-play, participants take on different stakeholders’ roles during a collective (team-based) decision-making process to improve water supply safety in a fictive town. The game is the result of a transdisciplinary initiative aimed at integrating knowledge across technical and governance aspects of WSPs into an active learning experience for water sector actors from diverse backgrounds. It exposes participants to the four phases of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle: concrete experience, reflective observation, conceptualization and active experimentation. This paper discusses potential impacts of the WSP role-play, including skills and knowledge development among participants, which can support cross-sectoral integration and dealing with complexity in decision-making. These are capacity assets strongly needed to address water safety management challenges in a sustainable way.

This template is prepared based on recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO)  to assist the owner or the house management staff of a residential care home for the elderly with an independent internal plumbing system to develop and implement a Water Safety Plan (WSP) to enhance water safety.

Ce guide vise à aider à l’élaboration et à la mise en œuvre de programmes d’audit des plans de gestion de la sécurité sanitaire de l’eau dédiés en définissant les principes et exigences les plus  importants. C’est une ressource pratique à l’intention des décideurs politiques, des organismes chargés de la réglementation ou de la surveillance de l’eau potable, des distributeurs d’eau mettant en œuvre des plans de gestion de la sécurité, et tous autres professionnels du secteur s’intéressant à la question de l’audit de ces plans.

Example of a semi-quantitative risk matrix to classify the severity and likelihood of identified hazards and hazardous events.

Practical guidance and training materials for small- and medium-sized water supplies, and for those providing training and support to these suppliers, on strengthening chlorination practices – a common improvement need identified through the WSP process in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions. Training materials include a facilitator’s guide and PowerPoint slides, and basic standard operating procedures and calculation sheets for effective and safe chlorination. The materials are based on training programmes delivered in the regions.

Practical guidance and training materials for small- and medium-sized water suppliers, and for those providing training and support to these suppliers, on strengthening operational monitoring practices – a core element of water safety planning. Training materials include a facilitator’s guide and PowerPoint slides.

This document provides guidance on how climate considerations can be integrated into water safety planning to provide greater resilience to the current and predicted impacts of climate change and variability on water supplies. The guidance is supported by numerous practical examples of climate resilient water safety planning from both low and high income settings.

Disposer d’eau potable de qualité acceptable et en suffisance est une condition préalable et essentielle à la bonne santé, au développement économique et à la durabilité des moyens de subsistance des familles des collectivités rurales. La mise en place d’un plan de gestion de la sécurité sanitaire de l’eau constitue l’approche la plus efficace en vue d’assurer l’alimentation en eau potable dans les systèmes d’approvisionnement en eau à petite échelle.

Le guide pratique explique cette approche étape par étape, et présente un ensemble de modèles prêts à l’emploi afin que les personnes ou entités chargées de l’approvisionnement en eau dans les zones rurales puissent élaborer et mettre en œuvre leur propre plan de gestion de la sécurité sanitaire de l’eau.

Le guide pratique s’adresse en particulier aux membres de la communauté rurale responsables de l’exploitation et de la gestion de l’approvisionnement en eau, ainsi qu’au personnel des services locaux de santé et d’approvisionnement en eau chargé de la préservation de la qualité de l’eau potable, et aux organisations non gouvernementales qui veillent à la sécurité sanitaire de l’eau potable dans les collectivités rurales.

A community focused WSP template to support drinking water safety and security planning in Fiji. This template is designed to make risk assessment easier for community WSP implementation.

Edfina Drinking Water Treatment Plant was installed at Behira governorate, Egypt in 1998 and, due to increasing of water demand, the water authority intends to increase its capacity by installing a new conventional water treatment plant. However, water resources are suffering from many illegal activities in the catchment which deteriorate the raw water quality. The water higher community took the decision to develop a  WSP for Edfina supply system with the Holding Company in coordination with other water stakeholders (including the Irrigation ministry, Environmental ministry, Health Minisry, NGOs....). This document is the first version of the WSP and is shared as an example of a WSP approach adopted in Egypt.

根據世界衛生組織（WHO）的建議，香港水務署最近編制了建築物水安全計劃的指引和範本，協助業主或物業管理代理制訂水安全計劃，以風險為本和多重障礙的方法，加強建築物的食水安全。建築物水安全計劃的實施，有賴物業管理和水喉業界人士的共同努力，包括辨識和評估內部供水系統的潛在風險，制定控制措施和執行相應的檢查和保養。此外，通過定期審核和檢視，物業管理可以驗證和更新建築物的水安全計劃。香港水務署已於2017年9月推出建築物水安全計劃的指引和分別合適一般建築物和學校使用的範本後，供建築物業主或物業管理代理自願參與。

Based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Water Supplies Department (WSD) of Hong Kong has recently developed guidelines and templates for Water Safety Plan (WSP) for Buildings. The guidelines and templates aim at assisting building owners or management agents to develop their own WSPs to enhance water safety in buildings by using a risk-based and multiple barrier approach. Implementation of WSP for buildings requires concerted efforts of building management and plumbing practitioners, including identifying and assessing potential risks of the inside service, deriving control measures and carrying out the corresponding checking and maintenance. In addition, the WSP will be verified and updated by the building management through periodic auditing and review. The guidelines and templates for general buildings and schools have been launched in September 2017 for voluntary adoption by building owners or management agents.

Les Directives de qualité pour l’eau de boisson de l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé recommandent l'application d'une approche d'ensemble pour l'évaluation et la gestion des risques appelée «Plans de gestion de la sécurité sanitaire de l'eau» afin d'assurer de la façon la plus efficace la sécurité des approvisionnements en eau. Cette approche est systématique, complète, rentable et adaptée à un large éventail de circonstances. Ainsi est-elle un outil important pour l'approvisionnement en eau des petites communautés.

Ce manuel a pour objet d’assurer la participation des communautés, de les rendre autonomes et de les guider dans l’élaboration et la mise en oeuvre de plans de gestion de la sécurité sanitaire de l’eau pour leurs réseaux d’eau de boisson.

Il présente des recommandations sur la façon de développer et de mettre en œuvre un PGSSE au moyen de 6 tâches réalisables. En suivant l'approche telle qu'elle est décrite dans ce manuel, les petites communautés peuvent améliorer la gestion de leur système d'approvisionnement et obtenir progressivement des améliorations durables de la qualité de l'eau potable.

В настоящее издание Руководства по обеспечению качества питьевой воды включено опубликованное в 2004 году третье издание, а также первое дополнение к третьему изданию, опубликованное в 2006 году, и второе дополнение к третьему изданию, опубликованное в 2008 году. Настоящее издание заменяет собой предыдущие издания Руководства и Международные стандарты.

В этом издании Руководства далее развиваются концепции, подходы и информация, содержащиеся в предыдущих изданиях, и в том числе впервые изложенный в третьем издании комплексный подход к профилактическому управлению риском в целях обеспечения качества питьевой воды.

Данное Руководство адресовано в первую очередь регулирующим органам систем водоснабжения и здравоохранения, директивным органам и их консультантам в целях оказания помощи в разработке национальных стандартов. Руководство и связанные с ним документы также используются многими другими в качестве источника информации по вопросам обеспечения качества воды и охраны здоровья, а также по эффективным подходам к управлению.

La quatrième édition des Lignes directrices de l'OMS pour la qualité de l'eau potable s'appuie sur plus de 50 ans d'orientations sur la qualité de l'eau potable qui font autorité en matière de mesures de santé publique lorsqu’il s’agit de mettre en place des réglementations et des normes nationales pour garantir la sécurité de l'eau.

C'est le produit de révisions significatives pour clarifier les recommandations et apporter des moyens de les mettre en œuvre en sachant identifier les dangers, gérer les risques en adoptant des indicateurs sanitaires, des plans de sécurité des eaux de captation et un système de surveillance indépendant.

Le premier addendum met à jour cette quatrième édition, apporte de nouveaux éléments de preuve et des explications supplémentaires pour mieux comprendre les directives et les mettre en œuvre.

Ces lignes directrices s’adressent principalement aux responsables de la réglementation dans le domaine de l’eau et de la santé, aux décideurs et à leurs conseillers, et ont pour objectif d’aider lors de la mise au point de normes nationales. Elles sont aussi utilisées, ainsi que les documents associés, par comme source d’informations sur la qualité et l’hygiène de l’eau et sur les stratégies de gestion efficaces.

In response to growing pressures on available water resources, potable reuse represents a practical source of drinking-water in many circumstances.

This document describes how to apply appropriate management systems to produce safe drinking-water from municipal wastewater. Information is provided on specific aspects of potable reuse, including the quality and protection of source wastewaters, types of control measures, monitoring considerations and public acceptance. Application of potable reuse is also illustrated through a number of case studies.

The guidance is intended for use by drinking-water suppliers and regulators who are familiar with the WHO’s Guidelines for drinking-water quality and, in particular, the framework for safe drinking-water, including water safety plans. This publication may also be useful to others with an interest in potable reuse including environmental health and water resource professionals.

One of the challenges in the implementation of Water Safety Plans (WSPs) is stakeholder engagement. For this reason, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education has developed a role-playing game for practising stakeholder collaboration in WSP. The game can be used in WSP training or during educational activities for water safety and WSP at graduate and post-graduate level. Its goal is for participants to experience the importance of stakeholder engagement in WSPs, and particularly in the decision-making process when investing in the rehabilitation and maintenance of a drinking water supply system from catchment to consumers. Participants will experience how this process can be influenced by information exchange between stakeholders and how this will eventually lead to greater awareness when assembling the WSP team.

This document provides guidance to water suppliers on the steps involved in developing a water safety plan and an outline of what it should contain in the Irish context. It contains guidance and useful templates on hazard identification, risk assessment and the preparation of action plans for the hazards identified.

A Water and Sanitation Safety Plan (WSSP) is an efficient methodology to manage drinking water and sanitation safely and is based on the Water Safety Plan and Sanitation Safety Plan approach by WHO. This WSSP Compendium aims to enable communities to develop a WSSP for small-scale water supplies, e.g. dug wells, boreholes, springs and piped centralised water supply systems, and as well as to assess the quality of sanitation facilities such as school toilets.

Water Safety Plans (WSPs), recommended by the World Health Organization since 2004, seek to proactively identify potential risks to drinking water supplies and implement preventive barriers that improve safety. To evaluate the outcomes of WSP application in large drinking water systems in France and Spain, we undertook analysis of water quality and compliance indicators between 2003 and 2015, in conjunction with an observational retrospective cohort study of acute gastroenteritis incidence, before and after WSPs were implemented at five locations. Measured water quality indicators included bacteria (E. coli, fecal streptococci, total coliform, heterotrophic plate count), disinfectants (residual free and total chlorine), disinfection by-products (trihalomethanes, bromate), aluminum, pH, turbidity, and total organic carbon, comprising about 240K manual samples and 1.2M automated sensor readings. We used multiple, Poisson, or Tobit regression models to evaluate water quality before and after the WSP intervention. The compliance assessment analyzed exceedances of regulated, recommended, or operational water quality thresholds using chi-squared or Fisher’s exact tests. Poisson regression was used to examine acute gastroenteritis incidence rates in WSP-affected drinking water service areas relative to a comparison area. Implementation of a WSP generally resulted in unchanged or improved water quality, while compliance improved at most locations. Evidence for reduced acute gastroenteritis incidence following WSP implementation was found at only one of the three locations examined. Outcomes of WSPs should be expected to vary across large water utilities in developed nations, as the intervention itself is adapted to the needs of each location. The approach may translate to diverse water quality, compliance, and health outcomes.
(Final report at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.02.004)

In order to safeguard the public against waterborne diseases, water utilities must secure that multiple, microbial barriers are provided for in their drinking water systems. In most water utilities disinfection of the water represents an important barrier, but microbial barriers may also be achieved by other actions, for example in the catchment area.

Based on experiences from Norway, Sweden and Finland, this guideline is a helpful tool for implementing Water Safety Plans. The guideline explains the "barrier concept" and assist water utilities as well as their their consultants in determining what actions to take to ensure that the microbial barriers in their systems are sufficient – and that the water is safe to drink.

This handbook provides practical guidance on integrating the water safety plan (WSP) approach into ADB's urban water projects to facilitate compliance with global good practices. Following the WHO’s Water Safety Plan Manual (2009), adapted to ADB’s operations, this handbook offers step-by-step guidance on developing and implementing a WSP, serving as an example of how external support agencies may integrate WSPs into their urban water programmes.

Based on information gathered from 118 countries representing every region of the globe, this report provides a picture of WSP uptake worldwide. It presents information on WSP implementation and the integration of WSPs into the policy environment. It also explores WSP benefits, challenges and future priorities.

It is envisaged that this report will serve as a useful resource for policy-makers, practitioners and other stakeholders to inform and strengthen the planning and practice of WSP implementation.

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 WSP template as been developed and customized specifically for use in rural water supplies in Liberia. Text in yellow provides an example of how to complete each section. This template may be considered for use in other countries and regions, but must first be reviewed and adapted to suit the local context.

This WSP template as been developed and customized specifically for use in organized (i.e. urban) water supplies in Liberia. Text in yellow provides an example of how to complete each section. This template may be considered for use in other countries and regions, but must first be reviewed and adapted to suit the local context.