Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water - LWUA

Annex 2.
Water Safety Plans
The application of an extensive risk assessment and risk management approach that
encompasses all steps in water supply system from sources, production, storage and
conveyance to consumers will ensure safety of drinking water supply. Such approach is
termed as Water Safety Plans. It follows the principles and concepts of multiple-barrier
approach and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) as used in the food
industry. It is proposed that these plans will be prepared by all water providers from large
water systems to water refilling stations.
Three key-components of Water Safety Plans:
• System assessment – to determine whether the drinking water supply chain as a
whole can deliver water of quality that meets health-based targets. This also includes
the assessment of design criteria or new systems
• Operational monitoring – to identifying control measures in a drinking-water system
that will collectively control identified risks and ensure that the health-based targets
are met; to rapidly detect any deviation from required performance
• Management plans – to describe actions to be taken during normal operations or
incident conditions
A thorough discussion of water safety plans is presented in WHO’s Guidelines for Drinkingwater
Quality, 2004, Third Edition.
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