Water Safety Plan for Securing Drinking Water Supply from River Bank Filtration Projects in Egypt - A case Study

The main objective of water utilities is securing the supply of safe drinking water with adequate quantity to safeguard public health. The Water Safety Plan (WSP) is considered an efficient way to ensure water safety according to the latest published information from the World health organization (WHO). WSP is dependent on a proactive approach to reduce the opportunity of hazards from the water source to the consumers' taps. In this study, an application of the concepts was done to secure the drinking water produced from River Bank Filtration (RBF). Both managerial and technical potential reason for risk was studied and the appropriate corrective action was settled. In general, it was found that however, RBF is considered a well-established water technology with a low cost it still could be vulnerable to different kinds of potential hazards. The study has shown potential risks in the source, RBF, network, and customer community In RBF, the water resource area is the more sensitive to the potential hazard with risk score reach up to 20 on a scale of 1 to 25. The average risk factor before the implementation of the corrective actions is about 10 which classified as high risk. These corrective actions include short-term with low cost that could be considered as quick-win actions other long-term actions have also been identified. The application of this action will ensure a decrease in the average risk to 3 (low risk). The corporate stakeholders and their liabilities have been identified and a group of (Key performance indicators) KPIs was developed for the process to be manageable. (Non-Governmental Organizations) NGOs have a major role in the application of corrective actions such as facilitating the connection for the poor citizen. The involvement of NGOs in the water management process at Abu Bisht will allow direct interaction between the industry and community which overall will increase the social responsibility of the company and at the same time increase the valuation of water at the mentality of the customers.