Implementation Of Water Safety Plans Research Articles

Natural hazard risk analysis in the framework of water safety plans.

The available literature on natural hazard risk analysis focused on the implementation of water safety plans (WSPs) is surprisingly quite poor, despite the significant increase in the number and severity of disasters and adverse effects on drinking water supply systems generated by natural hazards. At the same time, WSPs that conveniently account for natural hazards with a comprehensive approach 'from source to tap' are still scarce as they typically occur at larger spatial scales and adequate prevention, mitigation and adaptation require efficient inter-institutional collaborations. The aim of this paper is to highlight the main bottlenecks for water utilities to include natural hazards in the development of their WSPs. The research adopted a stakeholders-oriented approach, involving a considerable number of water utilities (168), water sectoral agencies (15) and institutions (68) across the Adriatic-Ionian Region through a stepwise process that generated joint SWOT analysis, the development of a decision support system (DSS) focused on WSPs procedures and tabletop exercises. The final outcomes generated strategic documents (REWAS - Adrion Road map for resilient water supply) that highlighted the necessity for efficient cross-sectoral and inter-institutional cooperation in the development of well-founded and robust WSPs to address natural hazard risk analysis for water supply systems (DWSS).

Water Safety Plan: A case study from Sofia, Bulgaria

According to Directive 2184/2020 on the quality of water intended for human consumption and World Health Organization (WHO) best practice, the Water Safety Plan (WSP) includes a review of the whole water supply chain – from protection of the water source, through water abstraction, transportation, treatment, storage and distribution to the end user. Risk management is based on the introduction of corrective, control and preventive measures, as well as subsequent validation of the measures taken and monitoring of their implementation according to the Deming cycle. The purpose of the current study is to review individual components of the WSP implementation and the effectiveness of WSP developed and implemented by Sofiyska voda JSC (SV) - the water supplier of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The article presents the overall approach followed by the water supply operator, including the system review, risk identification and assessment, mitigation barriers, process control through critical control points (CCPs), review and verification of all risk management measures taken.

Development of a tool to support operationalising water safety plans: experiences from a national water utility in Ghana.

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 water quality. Since the use of WSPs was incorporated into the GDWQ, a range of supporting resources have been produced to assist water suppliers in preparing WSPs. Producing a robust WSP is an important first step in the management of risk, but in many cases, the implementation of WSPs presents significant challenges, particularly in relation to the implementation of Module 5 (implementing improvements) and Module 6 (monitoring of control measures). To address barriers to WSP implementation, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), in a peer-to-peer partnership with two Australian water utilities, developed a pilot WSP implementation strategy for one of the company's drinking water supply systems. One of the outputs of the collaboration was the development of a framework for operationalising water safety planning, which incorporates basic guidance for embedding the WSP within routine operations, in order to ensure the safe management of drinking water.

Lmplementation of a national regulatory framework for drinking water safety plans in Uruguay.

The establishment of national strategic frameworks for systematic scaling-up of water safety plans (WSPs) implementation needs to overcome major constraints: lack of legislation and policies, and the need for appropriate monitoring tools. In 2018, the Uruguayan regulator for energy and water services promulgated a regulation intended to ensure an ambitious and pragmatic strategy that supports and promotes WSP implementation and auditing at a national scale. The goal is to have all drinking water supply systems with their WSP implemented by 2030. For this, a demanding schedule was recommended considering the size of the drinking water supplies: (i) large systems serving more than 2,000 inhabitants and (ii) small and very small systems serving fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. A mandatory verification through internal and external audits was also established. This work describes the legal and regulatory framework as well as the challenges and opportunities that open up for the generalization of WSP implementation in Uruguay. Despite the impact of COVID-19 on working conditions for water suppliers, as for the year 2022, WSPs have been successfully implemented in 94 water systems serving more than 2.4 million people. Results of successful implementation and auditing processes are presented and discussed covering methods and outcomes.

Implementation of drinking water quality surveillance and household water management practices in selected provinces in Indonesia

Safely managed drinking water (SMDW) is a prerequisite for maintaining human health and well-being. Therefore, drinking water quality surveillance (DWQS) is an appropriate approach to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, particularly the SMDW indicator as the highest ladder of drinking water services. The objective of this study was to elicit information on current DWQS and household drinking water management practices (HDWMP) in South Sumatera, West Java, South Kalimantan, and North Sulawesi Provinces. The methods included an in-depth interview with 35 informants and an interview with 175 households using a structured questionnaire. The results revealed that the DWQS did not fully comply with Health Ministerial Decree (HMD) No. 736/2010, particularly in dealing with sample size, the availability of reagents, comprehensive reports, and recommendations for remedial actions. Dealing with the HDMWP, 46.86% of households used piped water, followed by protected dug wells (30.29%), boreholes (12.00%), and refilled water (10.86%). Only 43.43% of household water sources were free from Escherichia coli, where these were dominated by urban households. The majority of households complied with the chemical quality of several parameters. The proportion of households with SMDW was 35.9% and it was much higher than that of the national level. As such, the improvement of drinking water surveillance is needed through the implementation of water safety plans.

Progress of Using Risk Assessment to Manage Small Drinking-Water Supplies in Rwanda: A Preliminary Study

The World Health Organization promotes risk assessment and risk management through Water Safety Plans (WSPs) as the most effective way to manage drinking-water supplies. Despite proven advantages of this approach in other regions, WSPs are still not widely used across small drinking-water supplies in Sub Saharan Africa. The aim of this research is to identify good practices and related gaps which may assist with formal uptake of WSPs for small drinking-water supplies in Rwanda. Through semi-structured interviews with the key stakeholders involved in small drinking-water supply management across Rwanda, the aim is achieved through the investigation of the following: (i) current drinking-water management challenges; (ii) stakeholder collaboration and data management activities including reporting of information; and (iii) the regulatory and policy environment. The use and awareness of WSPs in Rwanda was confirmed as low. However certain drinking-water management activities which align with the WSP methodology are being carried out. These include catchment management and stakeholder collaboration. Although legislation and policy are in place in Rwanda, communication and training of methods to implement WSPs are required to sustainably embed WSPs into practice. Several elements, including community engagement, systematic review of risks and data management, require greater focus to align with the WSP methodology. Respondents highlighted key drinking-water management challenges, including reactive budgeting and lack of sector prioritization, which could benefit from formal WSP implementation.

Challenges and Facilitating Factors to Implement Water Safety Plans: a Systematic Review

Purpose: We aim to identify the factors that facilitated or difficult the implementation of Water Safety Plans (WSP) worldwide. Method: Systematic survey at Web of Science and Scopus database. The final analysis of the papers involved the extraction and analysis of the metadata, with the aid of the software R, spreadsheets and iramuteq 0.7 alpha 2. Results and conclusion: The main challenges to implement safety plans are teamwork, timeframe management, documentation and registration of information, financial issues, understanding the importance of the WSP and lack of commitment of high-level directors. The factors that facilitate WSP implementation are teamwork, adaptation to local reality, existence of previous conditions and plans already implemented, financial support and positive commitment of high-level directors. Some factors may affect the implementation of WSP positively or negatively, such as financial issues; the support of high-level directors to implement the project; and similar practices and plans already in execution. The most cited direct benefits of the implementation of WSP were safer water; improvement in the registration of information; improvement in team communication; more efficient and active management of the services; and increase in the team’s self-confidence. Research implications: The planning and preparation steps of WSP must include strategies to overcome the main challenges. Some factors may affect the implementation of WSP positively or negatively, such as financial issues; the support of high-level directors to implement the project; and similar practices and plans already in execution. Originality/value: This paper contributes with a general overview of the challenges and facilitators in the WSP examples available in scientific papers, which may help future success implementation of WSP and to avoid usual mistakes in this plan.

Evaluation of water safety plan implementation at provincial water utilities in Vietnam.

This study evaluated the experience of implementing water safety plans (WSPs) in Vietnam. WSPs were introduced in Vietnam by the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Construction in 2006 and have been a mandatory requirement for municipal water supplies since 2012. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collected data on the perceived benefits and challenges of WSP implementation from 23 provincial water companies between August and November 2021. Potential public health benefits of improved water quality were a key motivation; 87% of the water utilities were also motivated by the risk of climate change and prepared response plans to climate-related extreme events as part of WSPs. A decrease in E. coli and an improvement in disinfectant residual in treated water were reported by 61 and 83% of the water supplies, respectively. Sixty-five percent of the water supplies also reported improved revenue and cost recovery. Key barriers to WSP implementation were a lack of WSP guidance suitable for the local context (87%) and insufficient funds for WSP implementation (43%). Our study highlights the need for improved support and capacity building along with locally suited guidance on WSP implementation and audit.

Chlorophyll soft-sensor based on machine learning models for algal bloom predictions

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a growing concern to public health and aquatic ecosystems. Long-term water monitoring conducted by hand poses several limitations to the proper implementation of water safety plans. This work combines automatic high-frequency monitoring (AFHM) systems with machine learning (ML) techniques to build a data-driven chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) soft-sensor. Massive data for water temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and system battery were taken for three years at intervals of 15 min from two different areas of As Conchas freshwater reservoir (NW Spain). We designed a set of soft-sensors based on compact and energy efficient ML algorithms to infer Chl-a fluorescence by using low-cost input variables and to be deployed on buoys with limited battery and hardware resources. Input and output aggregations were applied in ML models to increase their inference performance. A component capable of triggering a 10 upmug/L Chl-a alert was also developed. The results showed that Chl-a soft-sensors could be a rapid and inexpensive tool to support manual sampling in water bodies at risk.

Benefits, Challenges and Sucess Factors of Water Safety Plan Implementation: A Review

<p>Drinking water supply is a preeminent to public health, environmental protection, quality of life, economic activity, and sustainable development. Many disasters are being recorded due to poor water quality every day. In this case, it is essential to assure safe water demand through continuous enhancement and improvement of all practices and processes related to the water supply. The Water Safety Plan (WSP) concept has become a globally recognized and accepted approach to drinking water supply management and operation. This study aims at reviewing the WSP risk management approach around the world. In addition, the four success factors of WSP implementation are discussed. The benefits, difficulties, as well as recommendation from recent studies that implemented WSP is presented. Improving water quality and operational efficiency were the main benefits whereas lack of staff training and insufficient time and fund were the main challenges for effective WSP implementation. According to a literature scan, the water utilities in Arab gulf region countries do not implement WSP, thus, the author encourages water utilities in these countries to conduct WSP to improve water quality management.</p>

Co-development of a risk assessment tool for use in First Nations water supply systems: A key step to water safety plan implementation.

Despite several years of targeted interventions, First Nations drinking water systems in Canada remain under-resourced and require substantial improvements in both infrastructure and management to provide communities with safe drinking water. The purpose of this study was to co-develop a risk assessment process integral to the water safety planning methodology to determine if proactive risk assessment provides a beneficial management tool for First Nations water systems. We co-developed a risk assessment web-application with First Nations stakeholders to identify hazards and assess risk in six Atlantic region First Nations communities. Using this application, we were able to successfully identify high-risk hazards in each community, both risks specific to individual systems, and risks common at a regional level. Through semi-structured interviews we identified the following benefits of a risk assessment web application: increased communication, data ownership and centralized data management. However, challenges remain, including current fragmented governance realities, and liability concerns associated with adopting a new risk management strategy. Successful adoption of proactive risk management strategies in First Nations communities will depend on strong co-development of risk assessment tools, transparent communication between stakeholders and clearly defined data ownership and management practices.

Water Safety Plans -The case of Portugal

Water supply is a structural and irreplaceable service, essential to promote public health, to pursue economic activities, and crucial for environmental conservation, reflecting the population’s quality of life and the status of sustainable development. In this context, it is imperative to assure the continuous improvement of all processes and practices conducive to guarantee water quality. Water Safety Plans (WSP) are an important public policy tool to accomplish these goals. This manuscript reviews the international evidence of the adoption and implementation of WSP and reports the current situation in Jordan, as part of the necessary adjustment of the national legal framework to the publication of the Directive (EU) 2015/1787, October 6th, on water quality for human consumption. The aim is to draw lessons from several successful WSP experiments around the world and extract lessons from these cases when drafting new legislation in Portugal and elsewhere. Findings suggest there are four critical components in developing and implementing WSP: commitment, technical knowledge, governance, and interagency collaboration. © 2018. JASET, International Scholars and Researchers Association

Risk assessment and water safety planning for rural water supply in Uttarakhand, India.

A water safety plan (WSP) has been developed for rural water supply in Dehradun district, Uttarakhand, India. Four public water utilities were chosen to demonstrate the application of WSP in improving the rural drinking water quality along with improved sanitation. Hazard identification and risk assessment carried out identified 10 hazardous events at all four utilities. Intermittent water supply, poor repair and maintenance of the supply channel machinery, and individual household sanitation practices were the potential sources of contamination. The study showed encouraging results, where the evaluated risks decreased substantially after implementing the control measures, along with improved water quality after WSP implementation which showed statistically significant results (p < .05) for all tested parameters, namely, turbidity (p = .000), total dissolved solids (p = .004), residual-free chlorine (p = .004), total coliforms (p = .000), and fecal coliforms (p = .003). The sanitation condition of water source and households also improved by adopting the suggested measures. The study recommends water safety planning, to empower the rural communities to safeguard their water sources, and for sustainable water supply management.

Study of Long-Term Effectiveness of Water Safety Plan Applied to Microfiltered Water Dispensers to Improve Water Quality

The use of Microfiltered Water Dispensers (MWDs) is increasing in offices, companies, or commercial facilities, as a response to plastic pollution. Despite their widespread use, poor data are available about the water quality and pathogens developed. Starting from a high contamination found in MWDs, a Water Safety Plan (WSP) was implemented on 57 MWDs to improve the water quality. To assess the effectiveness of WSP during the period 2017–2021, the environmental monitoring of heterotrophic plate counts (HPCs) at 36 °C and 22 °C, Enterococcus spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Clostridium perfringens, as prescribed by Italian regulation for drinking water, was conducted. A high level of HPCs at both temperatures was observed, over the regulation limit; contrarily, the pathogenic bacteria were absent. The contamination found was studied with respect to the temperature threshold of 25 °C, suggested by directives. No significant differences were found between samples above and below the threshold, while a significant decrease over the years was observed for HPCs at 36 °C (p = 0.0000000001) and 22 °C (p = 0.000006). The WSP implementation resulted in a 43.09% decrease for HPCs at 36 °C and a 24.26% decrease for HPCs at 22 °C. Moreover, during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the WSP contributed to limit the microbial contamination, preserving the MWDs’ functionality and hygienic conditions and the drinking water quality.

Legionella spp. Colonization in Water Systems of Hotels Linked with Travel-Associated Legionnaires’ Disease

Hotel water systems colonized with Legionella spp. have been the source of travel-associated Legionnaires’ disease, and cases, clusters and outbreaks continue to be reported worldwide each year. A total of 132 hotels linked with travel-associated Legionnaires’ disease, as reported through the European Legionnaires’ Disease Surveillance Network, were inspected and tested for Legionella spp. during 2000–2019 by the public health authorities of the island of Crete (Greece). A total of 3311 samples were collected: 1885 (56.93%) from cold water supply systems, 1387 (41.89%) from hot water supply systems, 37 (1.12%) were swab samples and two (0.06%) were soil. Of those, 685 (20.69%), were collected from 83 (62.89%) hotels, testing positive (≥50 CFU/L) for Legionella pneumophila) serogroups 1–10, 12–14 and non-pneumophila species (L. anisa, L. erythra, L. tusconensis, L. taurinensis, L. birminghamensis, L. rubrilucens, L. londiniesis, L. oakridgensis, L. santicrusis, L. brunensis, L. maceacherii). The most frequently isolated L. pneumophila serogroups were 1 (27.92%) and 3 (17.08%). Significantly higher isolation rates were obtained from hot water supply systems (25.96%) versus cold water systems (16.98%) and swab samples (13.51%). A Relative Risk (R.R.) &gt; 1 (p &lt; 0.0001) was calculated for hot water temperature &lt;55 °C (R.R.: 4.43), chlorine concentrations &lt;0.2 mg/L (R.R.: 2.69), star ratings &lt;4 (R.R.: 1.73) and absence of Water Safety Plan implementation (R.R.: 1.57).

Success Factors for Water Safety Plan Implementation in Small Drinking Water Supplies in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Water Safety Plan (WSP) implementation has the potential to greatly improve, commonly very challenging and resource limited, small drinking water supplies. Although slower than in urban or high-income settings, the uptake of WSPs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is accelerating. Understanding the factors which will make a WSP successful will further improve efficient uptake and assist with its long-term sustainability. Based on an extensive literature search using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISM-A) methodology, 48 publications, including case studies and guidance documentation, formed the basis of this review. These were analysed using inductive and deductive coding methods to (i) identify the success factors applicable to WSP implementation in small drinking water supplies in LMICs and (ii) to investigate which factors are more or less critical depending on the geography and level of development of the implementing country. Key challenges identified during the review process were also noted. A comparison of these success factors was made with those identified from high-income and urban settings. The three most important success factors identified are the development of technical capacity, community engagement, and monitoring and verification. Factors specific to small drinking water supplies in LMICs include support from non-government organisations, integration into existing water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs, simplicity, and community engagement. Certain factors, such as adaptability, the use of guidance documentation, international collaboration, the role of pilot studies, knowledge sharing, and stakeholder involvement are applicable to all WSP settings. Due to the specific challenges faced by small drinking water systems and the limited number of original research publications on this topic, this study highlights the need for further data collection and research focused on success factors in these settings. It is anticipated that the consideration of the success factors identified in this study will assist implementers in improving the uptake and long-term sustainability of WSPs in small drinking water supplies in low- and middle-income settings.

Whither regulation, risk and water safety plans? Case studies from Malaysia and from England and Wales

We explore the interplay between preventative risk management and regulatory style for the implementation of water safety plans in Malaysia and in England and Wales, two jurisdictions with distinct philosophies of approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 water safety professionals in Malaysia, 23 in England and Wales, supported by 6 Focus Group Discussions (n = 53 participants). A grounded theory approach produced insights on the transition from drinking water quality surveillance to preventative risk management. Themes familiar to this type of regulatory transition emerged, including concerns about compliance policy; overseeing the risk management controls of regulatees with varied competencies and funds available to drive change; and the portfolio of interventions suited to a more facilitative regulatory style. Because the potential harm from waterborne illness is high where pathogen exposures occur, the transition to risk-informed regulation demands mature organisational cultures among water utilities and regulators, and a laser-like focus on ensuring risk management controls are delivered within water supply systems.

Comparison of topological, empirical and optimization-based approaches for locating quality detection points in water distribution networks

The positioning of quality detection points as well as the frequency of sampling is a crucial aspect for the implementation of Water Safety Plans (WSPs), which have been proposed worldwide to ensure water quality and to minimize the risk from contamination in water distribution networks (WDNs). In this regard, some international legislations and best practices about quality of drinking water suggest very fine sampling frequencies, but they do not specify where the detection points should be located in a WDN. In this paper, three different approaches, based on empiricism, optimization and topology, respectively, were applied to locate detection quality points in a WDN. The comparison highlighted that empirical approach commonly adopted by water utility practitioners is unsatisfactory. The optimization-based approach, although performing significantly better, is difficult to apply, since it requires a calibrated hydraulic model. The topological approach, based on the use of the betweenness centrality and not requiring any hydraulic information and simulation, proves to be effective, and it can be easily adopted by water utilities to identify the location for quality detection points, due to its simplicity compared with the optimization-based approach.

Development and implementation of water safety plans for groundwater resources in the southernmost city of West Azerbaijan Province, Iran

The transfer of water from the source to the consumption point is always associated with the possibility of contamination in any of its various components. To resolve this problem, the World Health Organization has considered a water safety plan. The purpose of this study is to implement water safety plan in the water supply system of Bukan city. This study was performed on Bukan’s water supply system in 2019–20 using a software to guarantee the quality of the water safety plan and the WHO and IWA guidelines. The software checklists were prepared and after confirming the validity of the translation and its facial and content validity, it was completed based on the records of the Water and Sewerage Company and interviews with experts. Out of a total of 440 points of full-application of the program and 392 points for the reviewed phases, 183.6 points were acquired and 43.7% of WSP-coordinated implementation was observed. The highest percentage of WSP-coordinated implementation (75.2%) was assigned to the validation stage with the highest point, and the support program stage had the lowest percentage of performance (1.1%). Among the major components of the water supply system, the final consumption point received the most attention from the system. Given the lifespan of the introduction and use of WSP in the world, it was expected that better results would be obtained from evaluating the implementation and progress of this approach in Bukan’s water supply system. However, the implementation rate of this program in this city compared to other cities in Iran, showed that according to the implementation time (one year), the obtained results are relatively convincing and good and the water supply system has a moderate level of safety.

Comparing the German enabling environment for nationwide Water Safety Plan implementation with international experiences: Are we still thinking big or already scaling up?

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 summarizes international experience with WSP implementation and scaling-up efforts following the 8 steps of the WSP road map published by WHO and IWA for an enabling environment, shows what steps Germany has in place, and compares this with published international experience to inspire further policy action. Contrasting the international experience to the German situation revealed several overlaps but also profound differences, which, in turn, offer opportunities for mutual learning. Most experience in Germany and internationally is documented for the earlier steps of the WSP road map. Information particularly on developing a national strategy, securing financial instruments, activities to support continual implementation of WSPs and on review of the overall WSP experiences and sharing lessons learned appears to be scarce, while the importance of training, collaboration and alliances, and the value of a regulatory push are often stressed. In Germany, stakeholder engagement, guidance documents and workshop materials have been of vital importance. Information that could particularly inform further action in Germany mostly relate to considering a national WSP strategy, and how to shape an approach for external quality assurance of WSPs.