Find WSP Resources

Water Safety Planning (WSP), an approach which aims at ensuring safe drinking-water thorough a comprehensive risk system assessment and management process since its adoption by the International Water Association (IWA) and World Health Organization (WHO) seeks to support achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.1 to provide safe drinking-wat...

This paper outlines a conceptual framework for conducting this type of overall evaluation of the impacts of a WSP. Drawing examples from existing WSPs in various regions, the framework also illustrates the types of intermediate outcomes that can be expected during WSP implementation. This conceptual framework, which requires some familiarity with WSPs, is de...

The WHO Guidelines for drinking-water quality recommend the water safety plan (‎WSP)‎ approach as the most effective way of ensuring continuous provision of safe drinking-water. The challenges related to drinking-water supply in rural areas and small towns are of notable concern globally, but the WSP approach has been proven to work effectively in small-...

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......

The lack of access to safe drinking-water is felt disproportionately by those who are disadvantaged socially, economically, demographically or geographically, and explicit consideration of these groups is required to understand and address disparities. This document describes how, with relatively modest efforts, the water safety plan (WSP) approach can bring...

This water safety plan country report for Sri Lanka shares the key learnings from the country’s WSP journey and achievements. The lessons learned can support the broader WSP global community for successful and practical WSP implementation....

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 ...

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......

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 p...

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)....

The successful development and implementation of WSPs have many benefits common to all drinking water systems, with some that are unique to each system. The major benefit of implementation contributes to improving drinking water safety and quality. To achieve this WSPs provide a framework for risk reduction prevention of hazards and a better response to......

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 n...

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 co...

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. Non...

The purpose of this document is to share Ethiopia’s experience in the implementation of the “Building adaptation to climate change in health in least developed countries through WASH project” especially the WASH sector with development partners, government bodies and project implementing member countries. It includes valuable lessons learned fr...

The purpose of these Ethiopian guidelines is to provide step-by-step guidance to the rural community/board managed water supplies on how to develop, implement, monitor, and review the rural community managed water safety plans aimed at protecting human health. Furthermore, it serves as a practical tool in identifying and addressing priority risks to the wate...

The purpose of these Ethiopian guidelines is to provide step-by-step guidance to the operators and managers of the large, medium and small urban water supplies with conventional water treatment systems on how to develop, implement, monitor, and review the water safety plans aimed at protecting human health. Furthermore, it serves as practical tool in identif...

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 suppl...

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.  ...

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

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 Ethiopia...

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 set...

Climate resilience needs to be built and coordinated at the basin, city and utility level to ensure adaptive measures for water systems are effective and integrate other urban services.  IWA and partners undertook a series of webinar on climate smart utilities to showcase what utilities are doing to address climate change both from a mitigation......

The U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act required states to develop source water assessment programs identifying existing and potential contamination sources; however, comprehensive risk prioritization and management approaches for surface water supplies have seen limited application. This participatory study assessed which permutation(s) of risk management framewor...

Ensuring safe drinking-water is the target of the Water Safety Plan (WSP) approach, which has been successfully applied to a large number of water supply systems around the world. Effective country-wide scaling up of WSP implementation requires an enabling environment at the policy level. By utilizing a multi-step mixed methods approach, this study summarize...

This interactive tool supports the implementation of the WSP step of hazard assessment by providing an overview of hazardous events, including those relating to climate change. The compilation was piloted and adapted based on experiences gathered, and aims to support practitioners, particularly water suppliers, health agencies and consultants, in implementin...

Risk assessment and risk prioritisation are critical elements of a Water Safety Plan. However the process can be complex, require considerable resources and take a long time. Therefore before establishing a risk management system it is important to be clear on the most cost effective approach to meet local priorities and needs. This document provides......

Communication with consumers is a key part of assessing and promoting the acceptability of drinking water supplies with consumers. The evaluation of consumer acceptability and knowledge of consumer complaints are important components of assessing the overall effectiveness of a WSP and an essential part of the verification of a WSP. This document summarises t...

This document summarises the drinking-water quality risks associated with corrosion and sediment accumulation within distribution networks and describes ways that the risks can be mitigated....

The German Environment Agency and the Water Technology Centre published a manual for implementation of the WSP approach in small-scale water supplies in Germany in 2014, which complements the technical rule on WSPs of the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW) with practical explanations, recommendations, examples and supporting...

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....

This presentation describes the development and implementation of WSP in Tabriz in Iran under the guidance of the World Health Organization Regional Office....

Since their incorporation into the 2004 version of the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality (GDWQ), Water Safety Plans (WSPs) continue to be the pre-eminent process for the delivery of safe drinking water to consumers. WSPs achieve this by prioritising proactive, rather than reactive, management of risks to drinking w...

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 s...

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.......

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....

Preparation of a well documented and up to date emergency management plan is an essential component of an effective incident response framework. The structure and content can only be determined by each water supply taking account of a wide range of different local factors. However this document provides a checklist of those items which need......

This package of materials is intended to support countries in developing (or strengthening) national schemes for regulatory auditing of water safety plans. Topics addressed include audit mandates and drivers, standardized audit criteria, auditor qualification and selection processes, financing and other mechanisms for audit functionality and sustainability. ...

Dans le cadre des efforts continus en faveur de la sécurité sanitaire de l’eau de boisson et de la santé, de nombreux pays ont demandé des orientations concernant la façon d’introduire des plans de gestion de la sécurité sanitaire de l’eau (PGSSE) et d’élargir leur mise en oeuvre. Il n’existe ni modèle ni façon unique......

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 secu...