Drinking water safety planning
Drinking water suppliers are operating in a more complex risk environment
Pressures include climate change, changing source water quality and quantity, ageing assets, emerging contaminants, microbial risks and increasing expectations for resilience and assurance.
In the UK, public water supply companies are legally required by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) under Regulation 27 of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations to base their risk assessments and drinking water safety plans (DWSPs) on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Local authorities strongly encourage or require a tailored water safety plan approach for large or commercial private water supplies. The WHO DWSP guidelines provide a structured, source-to-tap framework for identifying hazards, assessing risks, confirming control measures and prioritising improvements before water quality failures occur.
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Why is water safety planning important?
Water safety planning helps water companies move beyond reactive compliance monitoring towards proactive risk management. It supports public health protection, regulatory confidence, operational resilience, prioritised targeting of investment and clearer evidence for audits, reviews and incident investigations.
A robust water safety plan also helps stakeholders understand whether current controls are effective, where additional controls are needed and how risks should be reviewed as systems, catchments and regulatory expectations change.
How WRc can support your planning
Develop, review, audit and strengthen your drinking water safety plans
WRc provides independent support to develop, review, audit and strengthen DWSPs for public and private water suppliers. We combine microbiology, water quality, treatment, modelling, toxicology, asset and network expertise to assess risks across the whole system, from catchment and abstraction through to treatment, storage, distribution and customer use. Our support includes risk assessment facilitation, gap analysis, review of operational and compliance monitoring, improvement planning, incident review and disinfection advice.
Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) tools
Additionally, we provide quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) tools to support the assessment and mitigation of microbial risks in drinking water sources and in treated water. Our in-house-developed QMRA tool, the Ct toolbox, is used to assess the effectiveness of drinking water treatment and chlorination processes against microbial pathogens. It helps determine whether a water supply is achieving an adequate level of treatment and disinfection by calculating pathogen reductions and chlorine contact time (Ct) requirements. The tool is available for members of the Disinfection Forum. Contact us for more details.
Interactive training for water professionals
This interactive training is available for water professionals at any level who are involved in ensuring drinking water quality. The training provides delegates with fundamental knowledge to safeguard the quality of drinking water following the structure of the WHO DWSP guidance.
End-to-end planning services
We have an excellent track record in the development and update of DWSPs for public and private water supplies. We provide end-to-end services, as well as reviews, audits and updates for DWSPs and related risk assessments.
Recent project examples
- Independent assessment of a private water supply network DWSP, including a review of risk assessment documentation and improvement planning (UK water company)
- Review of a recycling plant water safety plan and the development and updates to the DWSP for the receiving reservoir (UK water company)
- Ensuring Water Quality: Three-day bespoke training (UK water company)
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