NURUL ASHIKIN BT MOHD HANAFI 200531
EOH4104 WATER QUALITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SEMESTER 2, 2020/2021
EXERCISE FOR LECTURE 11 – WATER SAFETY PLANS (LECTURE ON 08 JUNE 2021)
INSTRUCTION: ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS.
1. What is a Water Safety Plan (WSP)?
Water safety plan systems can be considered as a number of steps aimed at assuring the
safety of drinking-water, including preventing pollution of source waters, selective water
harvesting, controlled storage, treatment prior to distribution, protection during distribution and
safe storage within the home and in some circumstances, treatment at the point of use.
2. Why do we need a WSP?
We need a WSP because all the steps that had been mention above can function as
barriers, where activities are designed to minimise the likelihood of contaminants entering the
water supply or reduce or eliminate contaminants already present in the supply. Therefore, with
the multiple barrier approach, each barrier provides an incremental reduction in the risk of water
becoming unsafe. If there is a failure at one point, the other barriers continue to provide
protection.
3. Why is risk management needed to cover the whole system of water distribution?
It is important that risk management is inclusive and, therefore, needs to cover the whole
system from catchment to consumer because to ensure the accuracy of the assessment and it is
essential that all elements of the drinking-water system (catchment, treatment and distribution)
are considered concurrently and that interactions among these elements are taken into
consideration.
NURUL ASHIKIN BT MOHD HANAFI 200531
4. What are the key components of the Framework for Safe Drinking Water and Water Safety
Plans?
1. Health based target
2. Water safety Plans (system assesement , operational monitoring, and management
plans, documentation and communication)
3. Independent surveillance
5. What does it mean by Health-Based Targets?
Health-based targets provide the basis for the application of the Guidelines to all types of
water supply . The purpose of setting targets is to mark out milestones to guide and chart
progress towards a predetermined health and/or water quality goal. They are an integral part of
health policy development.
6. Elaborate about the objectives of a water safety plan.
The objectives of a water safety plan are to ensure safe drinking-water through good water
supply practice, that is:-
• to prevent contamination of source waters;
• to treat the water to reduce or remove contamination that could be present to meet the water
quality targets; and
• to prevent re-contamination during storage, distribution and handling of drinking-water.
7. Why is surveillance important to ensure safety of water for the community?
Surveillance is important because it contributes to the protection of public health by
promoting improvement of the quality, quantity, access, affordability, and continuity of water
supplies and is complementary to the quality control function of the drinking-water supply
agency.
NURUL ASHIKIN BT MOHD HANAFI 200531
8. What are the components needed to develop a water safety plan?
A water safety plan essentially consists of three components;
•system assessment
•operational monitoring
•management plans, documentation and communication.
9. What are the important items to be considered when describing the water supply?
• Catchments
• surface water
• groundwater systems
• treatment system
• service reservoirs and distribution systems
10. Name the hazards that might occur or be introduced throughout the water system.
• Biological hazards
• chemical hazards
• physical hazards
• radiological hazards
11. What are the factors that may influence the way hazards enter the water system?
• variations due to weather
• accidental or deliberate contamination
• pollution source control practices
• wastewater treatment processes
• drinking-water treatment processes
• receiving and storage practices
• sanitation and hygiene
•distribution maintenance and protection practices
• intended consumer use
NURUL ASHIKIN BT MOHD HANAFI 200531
12. What is the origins of radiological contaminants of water supply?
Radiological contamination can come from:
• naturally occurring radioactive species in drinking-water sources
• the contamination of water from the mining industry
• radionuclides from the medical or industrial use of radioactive materials.
13. What does it mean by “hazardous events”?
Hazardous events or hazard causes are hazards are listed it is important to consider the
corresponding events that lead to their entry into the drinking-water supply. Hazardous events
can cause contamination directly and indirectly. For example, pathogens can enter water
supplies directly from faeces. However, cyanobacterial toxins result from growth of toxigenic
cyanobacteria which are in turn promoted by a combination of factors. Therefore, factors, such
as nutrients, which can promote cyanobacterial proliferation, can lead to water becoming
unsafe and should be considered as contributory factors leading to the presence of a hazard.
These contributory factors require managing as part of the water safety plan.
14. It was reported that there is contamination of faeces into drinking water. What type of
control measure should be put in place?
Piped distribution systems. The distribution system must provide a secure barrier to post-
treatment contamination as the water is transported to the user. Residual disinfection will
provide partial protection against microbial contamination, but may also mask the detection
of contamination through conventional faecal indicator bacteria such as E. coli, particularly
by resistant organisms. Thus, water distribution systems should be fully enclosed and
storages should be securely roofed with external drainage to prevent contamination.
Backflow prevention policies should be applied and monitored. There should be effective
maintenance procedures to repair faults and burst mains in a manner that will prevent
contamination.
NURUL ASHIKIN BT MOHD HANAFI 200531
15. Why should we protect our catchment area from contamination or pollution?
We should protect our catchment area from contamination or pollution because it can helps to
reduce the amount of water treatment and quantity of chemicals needed and it also might reduce
the production of treatment by-products and minimise operational costs.
16. Why do we frequently need to monitor the quality of water supply?
Water quality monitoring is the monitoring of water quality is used to alert us to existing issues,
ongoing problems and emerging issues, to evaluate compliance and to preserve other useful
usage of water.
17. Elaborate on corrective action and incident response.
A corrective action is defined as the action to be taken when the results of monitoring indicate a
deviation from an operational or critical limit.
The incident response is an action of response from events such as non-compliance with
operational monitoring criteria, notification of chance events, spillage of a hazardous
substances into source water, extreme rainfall in catchment, an unusual taste, odour or
appearance of water.
18. What is the importance of emergency management procedures?
It is important for a public water system to develop and practice emergency response
procedures that address its unique risk profile, as assessed through an all-hazards risk
assessment. This will enable water system staff to take action to reduce the consequences of an
incident and restore service to customers
NURUL ASHIKIN BT MOHD HANAFI 200531
19. What are supporting programmes?
Supporting programmes are activities that ensure the operating environment, the equipment
used and the people themselves do not become an additional source of potential hazards to the
drinking-water supply.
For most, the implementation of supporting programmes will involve:
• collation of existing operational and management practices;
• initial, and thereafter, periodic review and updating to continually improve practices;
• promotion of good practices to encourage their use; and
• audit of practices to check that they are being used, including taking corrective actions in case
of non-conformance.
20. Why is important to have documentation and record keeping of water safety plans?
Documentation and records are essential for reviewing the adequacy of the water safety plan
and the adherence of the water supply system to the plan. There will also be a range of records
that will form part of the water safety plan setting up and implementation process as well as
monitoring and any necessary corrective actions taken, incident response records, validation
and verification
21. What is validation and verification?
Validation involves obtaining evidence that the elements of the watery safety plan are effective.
Validation should be targeted at the assessment of the scientific and technical inputs into the
water safety plan. Validation should ensure that the information supporting the plan is correct
and that the elements of the water safety plan will be effective, thus enabling conformity with
health-based targets and public health policy.
Verification may include review of monitoring control measures, microbiological and chemical
testing, or review of the water safety plan overall to ensure that it is still accurate. This may be
necessary, for instance, if there have been changes to processes or equipment.
Prepared by:
Dr. Shaharuddin Mohd
Sham Date: 08 June 2021
