Water safety plan for drinking -water providers required

  1.jpg

BATANGAS CITY-The city government through the City Health Office is stepping up its effort to provide clean and safe water supply to the people by requiring rural waterworks and sanitation project associations to formulate and implement their water safety plan(WSP).

Human beings need water to survive and so the Department of Health(DOH) issued Administrative Order No. 2014-0027 making it a national policy to require all drinking-water service providers to have their WSP to safeguard public health and prevent water contamination that may result in outbreak of waterborne diseases  like cholera, typhoid fever, and diarrhea. Vulnerability to contamination of water supply systems increases due to extreme weather conditions caused by limate change and the occurrence of emergencies and disasters.

In compliance with this national policy, the CHO conducted a Training Workshop for the Development of WSP for Community-Based Water Systems through the assistance of the Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth and Equity(SURGE) project of the United States Agency for International Development(USAID). Representatives of about 20 Rural Waterworks and Sanitation Projects participated in this activity.

The DOH says that “The WSP is a management tool that can be applied in all types of water systems to ensure the safe quality of supplied water. It uses a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach encompassing all steps in water supply from water source to consumer. The traditional approach of monitoring water quality at the tap is found to be ineffective because notification comes too late whenever there is contamination. Consumers have already ingested the water before an action could be made. WSP can address this gap by ensuring that notification will come on time while addressing the risks by appropriate control measures. WSP’s objectives are to prevent or minimize contamination of water source(catchment), remove contamination thru treatment and prevent re-contamination during storage, distribution and handling of drinking-water.”

According to Sanitary Engr. Elisa Dimayuga of the CHO, of the 69,263 total households in Batangas City,66,926 or 96.63% have access to safe water wherein 1,597 households have Level 1 water supply (a protected well or a developed spring with an outlet but without distribution system), 727 have Level 11(communal faucet or stand posts), and 64,602 have Level 111 (waterworks system or individual house connections). She also said that about 2,337 households that include some informal settlers and barangays in Isla Verde do not have access to safe water.
To ensure water safety and public health, she told the RWSP Associations to have water treatment monthly . (PIO BATANGAS CITY)