Risk Management in Water Safety Plans

The term safety denotes 'lack of threat', as well as the 'guarantee that a threat will be eliminated or minimized'. As far as tap water is concerned, the word safety is used to denote the probability of avoiding a threat inherent in the consumption of water which fails to meet the relevant quality standard, or a threat resulting from the lack of water. The risk to the functioning of the water supply system (WSS) is a measure of the loss of safety. The paper contains an analysis of some basic notions defining water user's safety. It also proposes methods of risk management in WSS operation, including threat identification and risk assessment. The problem of risk analysis and risk assessment has been extended by taking into account the costs incurred and the profits made due to the implementation of the so-called Water Safety Plans. In the proposed method of risk analysis pertaining to the threat of water user's safety, consideration is given to the occurrence of the so-called ALARP area, where a risk reducing procedure can be implemented only if such implementation is justified in economic terms.