Community Water Systems and Water Safety Plans

Human health and well-being are strongly affected by the environment in which we live — the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food and nutrients we eat. Community water systems and water safety plans are important ways to ensure the health of the community.

In many places, communities lack the capacity to effectively adapt their current systems for water, sanitation, and hygiene to the community's changing needs (population growth, changes in water quality).

According to the World Health Organization, the objectives of a water safety plan are to ensure safe drinking water through good water supply practices, which include:

• Preventing contamination of source waters;
• Treating the water to reduce or remove contamination that could be present to the extent necessary to meet the water quality targets; and
• Preventing re-contamination during storage, distribution, and handling of drinking water.

Figure courtesy of WHO

The World Health Organization provides additional information on Water Safety Plans:

Water Safety Plan (WHO)
Water Safety Plans Report 2005 (WHO) (PDF, 1.24 mb, 244 pages)

To learn more about CDC’s work in community water systems, please visit CDC’s Global Environmental Health page.

• Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.