Advancing Water Safety Planning: Global Practices & Challenges

IWA, Water Safety Planning Specialist Group Continuous Improvement in Water Safety Planning

Target Audience

Water utility operators and managers, Regulators, Water sector consultants, Water safety planning team members, Catchment managers and institutions responsible for watershed and catchment management and protection

Description

This webinar was organised by the IWA Specialist Group (SG) on Water Safety Planning.

Water Safety Planning (WSP) is a comprehensive risk management approach that includes all steps in the water supply chain from catchment to consumer. WSP serves as a proactive management system, ensuring continuous supply of safe drinking-water by: (i) knowing the system thoroughly, (ii) identifying where problems might occur, (iii) putting barriers and management systems in place to prevent challenges , and (iv) ensuring smooth functioning of all parts of the water supply system.

The second edition of the WHO – WSP Manual released in 2023, reflects practical experiences in water safety planning gained from around the globe. Water safety planning fundamentals remain and some major changes include, (WHO, 2023): (i) greater emphasis on a progressive improvement approach to WSP development and (ii) more focus on  sustained and effective implementation of water safety planning, through development of a ‘Water Safety Planning in Action’ concept (requiring continuous cycles of WSP development, operation, verification, and review).

This webinar highlighted the experiences and challenges in developing,  implementing and sustaining water safety planning practices by utilities from various geographies and with varying states of WSP maturity.

Resources

Master Slides

Learning Objectives

Participants have:

  • Learned about the best practices utilities are applying to develop, implement and sustain water safety planning through operationalisation.
  • Learned how to identify the real-life challenges in developing, implementing and sustaining water safety planning.
  • Heard success stories that encourage Water Safety Plan managers to tackle noted challenges.

Host

International Water Association

Panelists