Find WSP Resources

The training package consists of three components, a facilitator handbook, a participant workbook and accompanying PowerPoint presentations. It is structured around 13 learning modules based on the WHO/IWA WSP Manual: Step by step risk management for drinking-water supplies and the WHO/IWA WSP Quality Assurance Tool.

This case study describes the implementation of WSP and lessons learned in Victoria Australia. This case study has a specific focus on auditing WSPS.

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.

Da Nang Water Supply Company (DAWACO) and Manila Water Company, Inc. (Manila Water) engaged in a water operator partnership (WOP) to help DAWACO meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards for water quality in their pipe network. Through the partnership, 20,000 residents received improved access to water, and DAWACO increased staff capacity to scale up similar improvements in the remainder of DAWACO’s service area.

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.

This Household Water Use and Health Survey was therefore conducted as part of the Water Safety Plan for Linden, Guyana in order to understand the fate of water from the time it reaches the home to the point of consumption. It illustrates the sampling, the household visits, the water testing, the data management and discusses the results from the survey.

The aim of this manual is to provide guidance on conducting a household survey as part of a Water Safety Plan for organized piped water supply systems in resource-limited settings. A household survey can help researchers to understand the fate of water from the time it reaches the home to the point of consumption. This survey contributes to Module 2 (System Assessment) of the Water Safety Plan, upon which the subsequent steps of hazard identification, consideration of control measures, and development of corrective actions, monitoring, and verification plans are based. Thus, the survey provides valuable information for the WSP team as the team goes through the process of system evaluation and implementation of changes resulting from the Water Safety Plan. Specific examples intended to guide the planner in designing the survey are provided in the appendices. A summary checklist for survey planning and completion is provided as Appendix A.

This document provides a 'road map' to support country-level implementation of WSPs. It provides guidance for country planners on how to initiate and carry out WSP implementation.  The document outlines a series of steps which may guide how WSP implementation and scale-up of WSPs may be approached at a national level.

Numerous publications now exist on the formation and use of WSPs, but most of these focus on largerscale projects run by private or public utilities, commercial enterprises and international NGOs. Tearfund’s particular interest is in how WSPs can be understood and established by user communities which are faced with self-managing a water supply project to gain sustainable access to safe water quality. The guide is written chiefly for the use of a facilitator or facilitating body (eg the hygiene promoters or community mobilisers of a DMT or partner staff) to use in training community members, and in particular,the water project accountability group (eg Water Users Committee) of the community.