Preparing for Success – Drinking Water Safety Plans and Lessons Learned from Alberta: Policy Considerations Contextualized for Small Systems

2016 ◽  
pp. 321-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Kot ◽  
Heather Castleden ◽  
Graham A. Gagnon
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Small Systems ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Water Safety Plans

Implementation of Alberta's drinking water safety plans

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Reid ◽  
K. Abramowski ◽  
A. Beier ◽  
A. Janzen ◽  
D. Lok ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Effective Action ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Quality And Safety ◽  
Biological Parameters ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Regulatory Approach ◽  
Water Safety Plans ◽  
Safety Of Drinking Water

Traditionally, the regulatory approach to maintaining the quality and safety of drinking water has largely been a prescriptive one based on the ability of any given supply to meet standards set for a number of different chemical and biological parameters. There are a number of issues around the assumptions and the limitations of a sampling and analysis regime. The basis for such regimes is essentially reactive rather than proactive and, consequently, the cause of the concern may already have impacted consumers before any effective action can be taken. Environment and Sustainable Resource Development has developed a template for recording drinking water safety plans together with guidance notes to help complete them. The template has been developed in MS-Excel and has been designed in a straightforward step-wise manner with guidance on the completion of each sheet. It includes four main risk tables covering each main element of water supply which are pre-populated with commonly found ‘generic’ risks and these are carefully assessed before considering what action is required to deal with significant risks. Following completion of the risk tables, key risks are identified and the interventions required to bring them into control.

Drinking water safety plans: barriers and bridges for small systems in Alberta, Canada

Water Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1140-1154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Perrier ◽  
Megan Kot ◽  
Heather Castleden ◽  
Graham A. Gagnon
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Water Safety Plans

Water safety plans provide a relatively new management approach for identifying and addressing risks in a water supply. In 2011, the province of Alberta (Canada) became the first jurisdiction in North America to require that all water supplies develop drinking water safety plans (DWSPs). This research explored the implementation of DWSPs through the experiences of ‘early adopter’ operators who work in small communities. Specifically, in-person open-ended qualitative interviews with operators from 15 small communities from across Alberta were conducted to explore implementation challenges and opportunities. The findings highlight a number of barriers associated with the relationships between decision-making bodies, regulatory authorities and water operators, all of which have the potential to support or hinder the uptake of a DWSP. Findings also indicate that a DWSP can act as a bridge, providing a much-needed tool to facilitate communication about water supplies and help to support and manage relationships between stakeholders. This study revealed a number of important and useful insights to the small community early DWSP adopter experience in Canada that could be applied in other jurisdictions looking to adopt similar practices.

scholarly journals A systematic literature review of the enabling environment elements to improve implementation of water safety plans in high-income countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Baum ◽  
Jamie Bartram
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
High Income ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Waterborne Disease ◽  
Enabling Environment ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Water Safety Plans ◽  
Context Specific

Abstract Effective risk management helps ensure safe drinking water and protect public health. Even in high-income countries, risk management sometimes fails and waterborne disease, including outbreaks, occur. To help reduce waterborne disease, the WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality recommend water safety plans (WSPs), a systematic preventive risk management strategy applied from catchment to consumer. Since the introduction of WSPs, international guidelines, national and state legislation, and local practices have facilitated their implementation. While various high-income OECD countries have documented successes in improving drinking water safety through implementing WSPs, others have little experience. This review synthesizes the elements of the enabling environment that promoted the implementation of WSPs in high-income countries. We show that guidelines, regulations, tools and resources, public health support, and context-specific evidence of the feasibility and benefits of WSPs are elements of the enabling environment that encourage adoption and implementation of WSPs in high-income countries. These findings contribute to understanding the ways in which to increase the uptake and extent of WSPs throughout high-income countries to help improve public health.

Implementation of drinking water safety plans and lessons from the Pacific islands

Waterlines ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Khatri ◽  
S. Iddings ◽  
M. Overmars ◽  
T. Hasan ◽  
F. Gerber
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Water Safety Plans

Insights into the challenges of risk characterization using drinking water safety plans

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 321-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Post ◽  
Emma Thompson ◽  
Edward McBean
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water System ◽  
Drinking Water Treatment ◽  
Risk Scores ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Water Safety Plan ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Water Safety Plans ◽  
High Degree

Risk assessment methodologies, specifically water safety plans (WSPs), provide a water operator with a greater awareness of the drinking water system and the hazards that may occur. This brings key issues to the forefront and promotes a proactive approach to drinking water safety. This paper identifies the challenges in completing a WSP and evaluates the robustness of procedures. Experts knowledgeable in drinking water treatment were asked to complete Alberta’s Drinking Water Safety Plan template for a hypothetical community. Findings from use of a condensed version of the WSP are also described, and the resulting risk scores obtained from both methodologies are compared. A high degree of variability between experts’ responses was observed from both; however, trends between responses show that the condensed WSP makes it easier to compare hazards relative to each other, to determine key risk areas that warrant more attention.

Keeping drinking water safe: Adopting water safety plans in rural Nepal

Waterlines ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nam Raj Khatri ◽  
Han Heijnen
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Water Safety Plans ◽  
Rural Nepal

Study on Mechanism Design of Rural Drinking Water Safety Engineering Project Financing Guarantee

2013 ◽  
Vol 361-363 ◽  
pp. 674-681
Author(s):  
Wei Li
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Mechanism Design ◽  
Safety Engineering ◽  
Project Financing ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Public Fund ◽  
Engineering Project ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Project Construction ◽  
Set Up

As more and more non-public fund entering rural drinking water safety engineering project market; it becomes very necessary to built rural drinking water safety engineering project guarantee mechanism. This paper proposes three steps of mechanism design. Firstly, history data is used to fit multivariate linear equation set up describing relationship between bank loss and key risk factors. Secondly, guarantee fee is calculated through model regression, which is threefold of possible bank loss. Thirdly, guarantee fee is adjusted according to variety of key risk factor in the process of project construction and operating.

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