Operational research on water safety plans: implementations in India, DRC, Fiji, and Vanuatu

Despite the promotion of Water Safety Plans (WSPs) as a comprehensive risk assessment and management strategy for water delivery, there is a lack of documented outcomes and impacts from this approach, particularly for community-managed supplies. Through a mixed-methods protocol of household surveys, water quality testing of source and stored water samples, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions, this study looked at WSP implementation in four countries to ascertain lessons learnt from these programs. From 817 household surveys and 256 key informant discussions, it was determined that there was no clear evidence linking WSPs to improvements in water quality. However, interviews indicated improved capacity of local committees in understanding their water supply systems and in identifying key risks to the delivery of safe water. Additional outcomes of WSPs and challenges associated with their implementation are discussed.