Water Safety Plans at
small-scale and
community level
Prof Richard Carter (WaterAid)
and
Dr Jen Smith (Cranfield
Overview
• The need for Water Safety
Plans
• WHO / IWA WSP steps
• WSP in small-scale /
community managed systems
• Liberia (no WSP) community
handpump
• Nigeria (no WSP) urban dug
wells
• Bangladesh findings from WSP
pilot project
• WSP critique
• The future – ‘Water Security’
The need for Water Safety Plans
• Health
• WASH related illnesses
e.g. diarrhoea
• Unreliable and unavailable
• Results are too late
• Requires resources & expertise
WSP steps
WSP in context
Liberia – community handpumps
• Functioning water
committee
• Active community health
volunteers
• Best practice followed
Nigeria – urban self supply
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Variable well conditions
1 owner, many users
Limited space (toilet & well)
Poor health understanding
Little governmental support
Reactive culture
Bangladesh – WSP pilot study
• Improved microbial quality:
– at tap
– in home
– Not 0 CFU/100ml
• Significant & consistent
reductions in sanitary risks
• Simple monitoring tool (pictorial)
• On-going surveillance
• Further capacity building (local &
regional)
APSU, 2006
WSP for small self-supply and communitymanaged systems
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What do users care about in terms of water?
Importance of external support
Buy-in from all parties
How do you regulate / monitor / verify?
Template use – links with complacency?
Success of localised revisions
Culture – recording data / proactive
approach
Beyond water safety plans (1)
Water consumers want:
– ready access
– adequate quantity
– adequate quality
– acceptable reliability
– at a price they can afford
– without an unrealistic
management burden
Beyond water safety plans (2)
Why consumers want
– ready access: convenience, time and energy saving
– adequate quantity: for domestic and productive uses
– adequate quality: for aesthetic reasons, health
– acceptable reliability: convenience and time saving
– at a price they can afford: poverty, valuation of water
– without an unrealistic management burden: convenience
Outcomes and impacts of improved water
supply
Outcomes:
Increased consumption of
adequate quality water
from a reliable, affordable and
manageable system - in other words,
functioning and utilisation (WHO MEP)
of a sustainable service (WaterAid,
Triple-S and others).
Impacts:
Time and energy saving leading to
socio-economic impacts.
Enhanced quantity and quality leading
to (small) health impacts.
Beyond water safety plans (3)
Not only water quality (safety) for health ...
but a fully functioning water supply service
in order to achieve the wider outcomes
and impacts which consumers want.
... towards water security
Water security has environmental
and management dimensions
• Environmental aspects: quality and
quantity of water resources, pressures,
trends
• Management aspects: financing and
institutional arrangements to ensure
functional sustainability
Towards ‘water security’ plans
Combining the principles
of integrated water
resource management
- High-level
- Poorly defined
- Hard to
implement
+ Common sense
+ Integrated
with the practicality of
water safety plans
+ Practical
+ Simple
+ Risk-based
+ Achievable
- Limited focus
Moving towards a risk-based approach for ensuring
sustainable water supply services
j.a.smith@cranfield.ac.uk
richardcarter@wateraid.org