Water safety plans (WSPs)

Use of the Water Safety Plans (WSPs)¹⁹² enables prevention and reduction of the risks inherent in the drinking water service, analysing dangerous events along the entire water supply chain, from collection to treatment and distribution, and through to the user's meter. The risk is calculated on the basis of the severity and probability of the pollution event or water shortage, and risk mitigation actions, monitoring systems, operating procedures under normal and emergency conditions, the water quality control plan, and the methods for informing the public and the competent authorities are defined.
Acea Ato 2 began implementation of the WSPs four years ago with a pilot project, completed in 2019, for the water system connected with the emergency drinking water plant for water from the Tiber River, in the Grottarossa area, under the supervision of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS)¹⁹³. The Company launched 10 WSPs for main aqueduct systems under its management, covering an area of approximately 640 km. In 2021, the WSPs for the Peschiera-Capore, Appio Alessandrino, Marcio, New and Old Simbrivio, Laurentino, and New Vergine aqueducts were submitted to the Italian Ministry of Health, followed by the WSP for the Doganella aqueduct system in 2022. Acea Ato 2 began implementing the WSPs for the water supply and distribution systems starting with the municipality of Guidonia Montecelio, with the documentation submitted to the Ministry in January 2022. In October 2022, the company also completed and submitted the WSPs for the municipalities of Albano Laziale, Manziana, and Marcellina and began preparing the Sanitation Safety Plan (SSP) for the Co.BIS treatment plant. Overall, implementation of the WSPs in Acea Ato 2 will involve 100% of the population served by aqueduct systems and from sources managed locally.
In 2022, AdF continued with the planned implementation of the WSPs according to a multi-year programme that will enable their full realisation across all water systems in the area by the end of 2028. In particular, AdF developed the WSPs of the water systems supplied solely by the Fiora and Arbure springs, for a total of 39 WSZs (Water Supply Zones), corresponding to a resident population of 28,197 inhabitants, or 12.3% of the total. In 2022, AdF also systematised the WSP implementation methodology by creating a specific application with a user interface to enable easier consultation, developed with the open source software Grafana. Data were entered into the database and queries and functions were developed to enable the automatic calculation of the risks for each plant/network, for each hazard event and for each type of hazard in current and hypothetical scenarios, assessing, for example, the implementation of management measures on the key risks identified. With this system, it will be possible to archive all calculation data, update evaluations and view the implementation status of control measures, providing full traceability and information to the competent authorities and monitoring the progress of each project against the project timeline.
Having successfully created, in the 2020-2021 two-year period, a cloud platform for sharing — including with the relevant authorities — data important to the process of implementing and approving WSPs, the description of aqueduct systems, requests to local health authorities to identify risk officers, control measures and the relative effectiveness, in 2022, Gori began to draft the operating instructions and procedures for managing documents and accessing the cloud, as well as the risk management operating instructions manual.
In 2022, Gesesa continued with training plans and authorisations on the draining necessary to manage WSPs, which will be prepared in collaboration with the University of Sannio. Finally, in 2022, Acea Ato 5 chose the Agani Tufano spring as the site for the first WSP.

192 The implementation of a Water Safety Plan (WSP) is required pursuant to the Decree of the Italian Ministry of Health of 14/06/2017, in implementation of EU Directive 2015/1787, which adopted the WSP methodology developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). In Italy, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) has adopted WHO guidelines and approves WSPs.
193 For the WSP in question, in 2020 the initial draft of the Plan was finished and submitted to the Ministry of Health.