Find WSP Resources

Protecting surface water for health provides a structured approach to understanding surface waters and their catchments to support the identification, assessment and prioritization of the risks, and the development of management strategies for their control, as a basis for providing safe drinking-water. The book provides guidance and supporting information o...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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 World Health Organization (WHO) promotes water safety plans (WSPs) – a risk-based management approach – for premise plumbing systems in buildings to prevent deterioration of drinking-water quality. Experience with the implementation of WSPs in buildings were gathered within a pilot project in Germany. The project included an evaluation of the feasibi...

The use of water safety plans (WSPs) has been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2004 as a highly effective means of improving water safety management. Experience with the implementation of WSPs is increasing worldwide, but there is no unified or standardized methodology for how the verification of a WSP should be conducted.......

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 wit...

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 pos...

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 complianc...

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....

In conjunction with the Guidelines for Drinking Water Safety Plans for Buildings in Hong Kong, this template is prepared as an easy-to-use tool for persons-in-charge of schools’ house management to develop and implement Water Safety Plan to enhance water safety....

In conjunction with the Guidelines for Drinking Water Safety Plans for Buildings in Hong Kong, this template is prepared as an easy-to-use tool for owners or house management staff of residential care homes for the elderly with an independent internal plumbing system to develop and implement Water Safety Plan to enhance water safety....

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....

Information and advocacy brochure from WHO-SEARO briefly defining Water Safety Plans (WSPs), showing progress in WSP development in South East Asia Region, illustrating what WSPs deliver to suppliers and users and providing ideas on what stakeholders’ next steps might be....

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......

Water quality deterioration in distribution systems, mainly caused by inappropriate planning, design and construction or inadequate operation and maintenance and water quality control, has been linked to a significant proportion of the burden of waterborne and water-related illness. Stresses on these systems caused by rapid urbanization, population growth an...

В «Руководстве ВОЗ по обеспечению качества питьевой воды» рекомендуется проведение комплексной оценки и мероприятий по снижению рисков для надежного обеспечения безопасности систем водоснабже...

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.  ...

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....

In many countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region, drinking water is not used directly from the tap and faecal contamination of water sources is prevalent. As reflected in Sustainable Development Goal 6, access to safer drinking water is one of the most successful ways of preventing disease. The WHO Water Safety......

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......

En 2004, les Directives de l’OMS pour la qualité de l’eau de boisson recommandaient que les fournisseurs d’eau potable développent et mettent en œuvre des plans de gestion de la sécurité sanitaire de l’eau (PGSSE) afin d’évaluer et de gérer systématiquement les risques. Ce manuel répond à cette recommandation en décri...

These Guidelines, specifically tailored to small water supplies, build on over 60 years of guidance by the World Health Organization (WHO) on drinking-water quality and safety. They focus on establishing drinking-water quality regulations and standards that are health based and context appropriate; on proactively managing risks through water safety planning ...

Ce guide présente l’état actuel des connaissances sur les effets des changements climatiques sur le cycle de l’eau ainsi que les impacts sanitaires associés. Il est destiné à aider les fournisseurs d’eau qui se sont engagés à utiliser ou qui utilisent déjà l’approche du Plan de Gestion de la Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Ea...

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 appr...

A brief note on the rationale for the WSP approach, the potential benefits for various stakeholder groups, and the value of incorporating WSPs into policies and regulations....

The effect of climate change on the hydrological cycle is becoming a growing phenomenon and resulting in impacts including flood and drought events, disappearance of glaciers, decrease in groundwater recharge, and water quality degradation (e.g. oxygen depletion in water reservoirs during extreme heat events) (WHO, 2017). Such events are becoming increasingl...

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 an...

A wholesale/retail model delivers drinking water to over 5 million residents in metropolitan Melbourne (Australia). Water Safety Plans were implemented in 1999 ahead of being regulatory mandated in 2003. With over 20 years of WSP application, this collaborative paper by the wholesaler and retailer utilities presents practical examples of drinking water quali...

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 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...

This document summarises the type of risks that might occur within treated water storages and how to control them....

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

Water is a fundamental need in every person’s life and ensuring access to safe water for all without discrimination is a human right, recognized by the United Nations (UN) in 2010. The global commitment to safe water for all is further demonstrated through the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 targets to achieve universal and equitable......

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...

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....