Water Safety Plans at small-scale and community level

1
Water Safety Plans at small-scale and community
level

• Prof Richard Carter (WaterAid) and Dr Jen Smith
  (Cranfield University)

2
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 Plans?

3
The need for Water Safety Plans
4
WSP steps
5
WSP in context
Literacy
Motivation
Health targets
WASH education
Community Small-scale
MANAGEMENT
6
Liberia community handpumps

• Functioning water committee
• Active community health volunteers
• Best practice followed

Review amend current practice
7
Nigeria urban self supply

• Variable well conditions
• 1 owner, many users
• Limited space (toilet well)
• Poor health understanding
• Little governmental support
• Reactive culture

New thinking
8
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
Success
9
WSP for small self-supply and community-managed
systems

• 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

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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

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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

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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.
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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
14
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

15
Towards water security plans
with the practicality of water safety plans
Combining the principles of integrated water
resource management
Practical Simple Risk-based Achievable -
Limited focus
- High-level - Poorly defined - Hard to
implement Common sense Integrated
Moving towards a risk-based approach for ensuring
sustainable water supply services
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Thank you

• j.a.smith_at_cranfield.ac.uk
• richardcarter_at_wateraid.org