20 December 2012: The World Health Organization (WHO) and International Water Association (IWA) have issued a training programme on Water Safety Plans (WSPs) designed for use by all professionals managing drinking-water safety.

The programme includes a trainer’s handbook, a participant’s workbook and 13 PowerPoint learning modules. The lessons focus on the life-cycle of WSPs from inception through post-incident planning, including modules on: assembling the WSP team; describing the water supply system; identifying hazards and hazardous events and assessing the risks; determining and validating control measures, reassessing and prioritizing the risks; developing, implementing and maintaining an improvement/upgrade plan; defining monitoring of the control measures; verifying the effectiveness of the WSP; preparing management procedures; developing support programmes; planning and carrying out periodic review of the WSP; revising the WSP following an incident; and WSP quality assurance tools.

The programme notes that the materials will need to be adapted to local needs and suggests updating the course with regional, national and local examples to improve learning outcomes. [WHO Publication Webpage] [Publication: WSP Training Package]