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 of Water Intakes in South-Eastern Poland in Relation to the WHO Requirements for Water Safety Plans

Since 2017, risk assessments for water intakes in Poland have provided the basis for decisions to establish indirect water protection zones. The preventive, risk-based approach and the related risk minimization measures are required under the provisions of the Drinking Water Directive (DWD) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on the quality of water intended for human consumption. This approach is in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for water safety plans. The aim of this study was to present a methodology and to carry out a risk assessment of the threats to surface water intakes, which in Poland, should be completed by the end of 2022. Risk assessments were performed for four onshore-type surface water intakes located in south-eastern Poland. The results were presented in aggregate form, which enabled clear presentation and conclusions. It was found that the greatest risks are associated with seasonal changes in water quality (mainly high turbidity and water blooms), unregulated sewage management, the occurrence of floodwater flows and catastrophic events caused by the potential failure of wastewater treatment plants. Based on the results of the risk assessment, the need to establish new, or to adjust the existing, protection zones for the analyzed water intakes was identified.

Water Safety Plans

Water safety plans (WSPs) represent a holistic risk assessment and management approach covering all steps in the water supply process from the catchment to the consumer. Since 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) has formally recommended WSPs as a public health intervention to consistently ensure the safety of drinking water. These risk management programs apply to all water supplies in all countries, including small community supplies and large urban systems in both developed and developing settings. As of 2017, more than 90 countries had adopted various permutations of WSPs at different scales, ranging from limited-scale voluntary pilot programs to nationwide implementation mandated by legislative requirements. Tools to support WSP implementation include primary and supplemental manuals in multiple languages, training resources, assessment tools, and some country-specific guidelines and case studies. Systems employing the WSP approach seek to incrementally improve water quality and security by reducing risks and increasing resilience over time. To maintain WSP effectiveness, water supply managers periodically update WSPs to integrate knowledge about prior, existing, and potential future risks. Effectively implemented WSPs may translate to positive health and other impacts. Impact evaluation has centered on a logic model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as WHO-refined indicators that compare water system performance to pre-WSP baseline conditions. Potential benefits of WSPs include improved cost efficiency, water quality, water conservation, regulatory compliance, operational performance, and disease reduction. Available research shows outcomes vary depending on site-specific context, and challenges remain in using WSPs to achieve lasting improvements in water safety. Future directions for WSP development include strengthening and sustaining capacity-building to achieve consistent application and quality, refining evaluation indicators to better reveal linked outcomes (including economic impacts), and incorporating social equity and climate change readiness.

Assessment of effectiveness of water safety plans (WSP) on water quality in rural communities of Anambra State, south-eastern Nigeria

World Health Organization recommends the use of Water Safety Plans as a systematic approach to ensure safe drinking water supply through a comprehensive risk assessment and management. This research assesses the implementation of WSPs in Anambra State, Nigeria based on understanding the outcomes of the community's WSP implementation and provides recommendations to improve the WSP process. To meet these objectives, a mixed-methods protocol was used, including, household surveys on water management practices, water quality testing to determine water safety of households' transport, stored and source waters and qualitative data collection. An evaluation on the implementation of WSPs in two council's areas, relative to non-WSP implementing communities, the following activities was conducted: 120 household surveys; water sample testing at water sources; Focus Group Discussions with key informant, water facility staff. Results indicates: water sources in both councils are producing relatively clean water; water management practices at the source were relatively safe with minor risky practices in a few communities; households involved risky practices that led to contamination from transported through to stored water and water facility caretakers were aware of their responsibilities. Recontamination of the source water during transportation and storage remained the main difficulty in ensuring consumption of safe water.