Sultanate of OmanOman Drinking Water Safety Plan

PAEW• Providing drinking water as per the

specification of Omani standard proportionate with the population growth.

• Establishment, operate and maintained the drinking water network and enhancing efficiency.

• Supervise the private water desalination company.

The World Health Organization The World Health Organization sayssays::

“The most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply is through the use of a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach that encompasses all steps in water supply from

catchments to consumer”.

•Omani management has got inspired by countries implemented water safety plan, particularly an Arab country like Jordan, to initiate the pilot project in Oman for its close study.

•PAEW Adopted this risk management approach and will develop a Drinking Water Safety Plan that is central to the way in which we ensure safe drinking water now and in the future.

•Thus we have got motivated to start it in Oman and will apply it at country level.

Oman Drinking Water Safety Plan

Sustainable quality management approach for the continuous delivery of safe drinking water in Oman.

Widespread adoption in Oman. Regulatory requirement in drinking-water legislation

for Oman. Benchmark for capacity building and training

institutions. Building partnerships in the region. Establish audit capacity.

Vision Pilot project

•Demonstration project facilitates .•Informs further development of national drinking-water policies and legislation.•Demonstrates feasibility of a WSP in the Omani context.•Provides basis for evaluating the added value.•Contributes to long-term capacity building.

•Product:•Fully implemented WSP •Covering all or selected aspects of the supply chain.

Vision Pilot project

Verification

Establish procedures for WSP auditingConfirm adequacy of water safety planning

Define compliance monitoring proceduresConfirm that water quality targets are met

System control

Define operational monitoring and inspection planIdentify if something does go wrong

Establish corrective actions and management plansRespond if something goes wrong

WSP team building

System description

System assessment

Identify hazards and hazardous eventsWhat can go wrong?

Assess and prioritize risks to public healthHow important are they?

Crosscheck with health-based targetsCan the water supply typically achieve these?

Validate existing control measuresAre measures suitable and effective?

Improvement and upgrade

Identify additional or improved control measuresHow to improve reliability and robustness?

Establish step-wise improvement planWhat actions to plan?

P E R I O D I C

R E V I E W

Plan of activity

• Identify roles of departments from within the supply • Identify staff undertaking particular roles• Develop a transparent management plan:

– Define separate activities and timelines– Number of person days required

• Review roles, responsibilities and interests of external stakeholders

Activity & schedule matrix

Building up the WSP Team

WSP Team

WSP Team Consist of:

1. Member from the water desalination plant

2. Members from water quality department

3. Members from maintenance department

4. Members from production and distribution department

8

System description

We’ve completed descriptions of water supply systems for all our catchments, sea water and ground water, 8 water desalination plants, 23 service reservoirs and water towers, and 320 km transmutation and 939 km distribution network .

 

The team has been divided into five groups according to the regions to:

• Systematically identify hazards and corresponding events(hazard analysis)

• Identify agents that potentially cause harm to public health

• Discover hazardous events introduce hazards or fail to remove them:

– Technical defects or malpractices

– Improper procedures or products

– Natural Phenomenon (e.g. cyclones)

System assessment

System assessment – Interview staff in on-site operations– Analyze previous incidents or failures– Evaluate data records– Supported by sanitary inspections– Review technical literature– Discuss with other water professionals– Site visiting

Visit the system and meet on-site staff

Water leakage discovered by WSP team during the site visit

When assessing the risks to drinking water quality we rank the likelihood and consequence of hazardous events.

How does it work ?How does it work ?

Risk characterisationSeverity

Catastrophic (Score: 16)

Major (Score: 8)

Moderate (Score: 4)

Minor (Score: 2)

Insignificant (Score: 1)

RISK MATRIX

80 40 20 10 5 Almost certain (Score: 5)

64 32 16 8 4 Likely (Score: 4)

48 24 12 6 3 Foreseeable (Score: 3)

32 16 8 4 2 Unlikely (Score: 2)

16 8 4 2 1 Most unlikely (Score: 1)

Lik

eli

ho

od

Example of Hazard Exposé

Where we are goingWhere we are going? ? Our WSP is key to the way in which we will manage risks to drinking water quality in the short, medium and long term. Risks are kept under continual review and the effectiveness of controls verified to make sure that the WSP remains effective.Our WSP enables us to identify and priorities where we need to invest funds to maintain and improve drinking water quality for the benefit of our customers and stakeholders.

Lessons Learned By the time, Water Safety Plan in Oman has been fully implemented, only then its positive and negative lessons can be documented. However we have already faced some challenges, some of which are listed below: • The overloaded schedule of the team. • Lake of appropriate documentation process of previous failures. • Recently implemented change of organizational structure in PAEW which resulted in relocating and changing of some key players in WSP team

Our Embracing

The WSP approach to proactive and effective risk management is an important part of our journey to become a world class operator of water infrastructure.

Thank You