University creates water safety 'toolbox'

Sept. 14, 2007 -- Cranfield University is helping in the global fight to deliver safe drinking water to less developed countries -- by producing a new global resource 'toolbox'.

The project -- in partnership with the International Water Association (IWA) -- focuses on the application of risk-management approaches to ensuring safe drinking water through Water Safety Plans (WSPs).

WSPs are promoted in the Bonn Charter and the World Health Organization's 3rd edition of the Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality. They form part of the preventative management framework for safe drinking water.

At present the development and implementation of Water Safety Plans is somewhat sporadic and there is a need to increase implementation efforts. Such an increase is reliant upon knowledge exchange between water suppliers and concerted support from researchers, professional associations and other stakeholders.

There is also a need to ensure that support is relevant to water suppliers in low-income countries, where the challenges faced are very different. Cranfield University and IWA will collate, trial, and adapt existing tools to ensure their relevance to suppliers both in developed and less-developed countries.

Dr. Jen Smith of Cranfield's Centre for Water Science explains, "Globally, water suppliers are at different stages of implementing a risk-management approach to water supply and as such the tools required vary. The toolbox resulting from this research will help water suppliers develop and implement WSPs and protect the publics' health."

Until fully trialed, the toolbox will only be available to founding members of the Bonn Network, a group of water suppliers committed to the principles of the Bonn Charter. It is planned to make later versions accessible globally to all water suppliers.

Cranfield University is one of Western Europe's largest academic centers for strategic and applied research, development and design. It is unique in its entirely postgraduate focus. The university is made up of three campuses Cranfield, Silsoe and Shrivenham.

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