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. 2018 Jun 10;15(6):1223.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph15061223.

Measuring the Impacts of Water Safety Plans in the Asia-Pacific Region

Emily Kumpel  1   2 , Caroline Delaire  3 , Rachel Peletz  4 , Joyce Kisiangani  5 , Angella Rinehold  6 , Jennifer De France  7 , David Sutherland  8 , Ranjiv Khush  9
Affiliations

Measuring the Impacts of Water Safety Plans in the Asia-Pacific Region

Emily Kumpel et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of Water Safety Plans (WSP) implemented in 99 water supply systems across 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. An impact assessment methodology including 36 indicators was developed based on a conceptual framework proposed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and before/after data were collected between November 2014 and June 2016. WSPs were associated with infrastructure improvements at the vast majority (82) of participating sites and to increased financial support at 37 sites. In addition, significant changes were observed in operations and management practices, number of water safety-related meetings, unaccounted-for water, water quality testing activities, and monitoring of consumer satisfaction. However, the study also revealed challenges in the implementation of WSPs, including financial constraints and insufficient capacity. Finally, this study provided an opportunity to test the impact assessment methodology itself, and a series of recommendations are made to improve the approach (indicators, study design, data collection methods) for evaluating WSPs.

Keywords: Asia-Pacific region; drinking water quality; impact assessment; risk management; water safety plans.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors affiliated with WHO in this publication declare that WHO received funding for WSP implementation.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Twelve countries that participated in the WSP impact assessment, with number of participating sites indicated between parentheses.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Description of sites: (a) Populations served by sites; (b) Mean age of WSP at time of follow-up data collection. The upper and lower bounds show the maximum and minimum ages in each country, respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Operational impact assessment framework and indicators used in this study. More details on indicators, including units and sub-indicators, are presented in Table 2.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Distribution of qualitative audit scores assessing the quality of WSP implementation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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