Application of the Systems Approach and System Standards in Water Safety Plan Development and Implementation

Since the emergence of the first organized social communities, there has always been a need for continuous and safe provision of basic life necessities such as food and water. Nowadays, access to safe and sustainable drinking water and other sanitation services is vital for a healthy and dignified life. Even the sustainability ratio of any modern society is often connected to availability, affordability and sustainability of water-related services. On the other hand, as a result of different intentional and unintentional stressors affecting water services, contemporary science is increasingly focused on the safety of all sub-systems related to the transformation of water resources, a part of the environment, into an adequate product for end users such as households and industries. Within such a system, both qualitative and quantitative issues should be identified and properly managed. In this sense, the systems approach allows a comprehensive view of a water-system as an entirety, rather than a mere sum of its building blocks. Internal and external application of the systems approach should be considered for the purpose of water safety plan development. Internal application pertains to the drinking water supply system observed as the technical entity for collection, transformation and distribution of drinking water, where the elements of the process are taken into consideration. External application is focused on the context of a broader social environment that governs the system, regarding both normal operations and emergency events. Such stakeholder analysis includes end-user requirements and expectations, as well as economic, technical, organizational and educational capacities of a local government, sustainability of the chosen solution, and hazard and threat identification. Threats should be analysed both at the micro and macro levels, where influencing factors are identified and described in more detail. In addition to the application of the systems approach, in the context of the development and management of water safety plans, it is necessary to consider the provisions of the EN 15975 standard, which is one of the aims of this paper. A brief analysis of typical examples of the use of such plans is also provided. The main conclusion refers to the improvements generated by the implementation of the various water safety plans.