The Bonn Charter

for Safe Drinking

Water
Andrew Speers
Programmes Manager
International Water Association

Presentation Structure
The Bonn Charter
What is it?
Links with WHO Guidelines
The important principles
Features of the new WHO Guidelines
Water quality management plans (WQMPs)
and their application
Extending involvement in and knowledge of
the Charter worldwide
IWA Congress, Marrakech, Sept 2004
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The Bonn Charter
Bonn Workshop 1 Oct 2001
Bonn Workshop 2 IWA Feb 2004
Experienced regulators and water utility quality
managers the output is the Charter
The Charter: a set of fundamental principles
that can be applied worldwide for the supply
of safe drinking water
Available now as a draft document

The Bonn Outputs

The Bonn Charter for safe drinking
water
The Bonn Charter Implementation
Guide is now being developed; it will be
continuously updated to include new
experience in the application of the
Charter principles

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Who is the Charter For?
All those collectively contributing to the
provision of a water supply system from
catchment to consumer
In conjunction with the other
stakeholders water suppliers are pivotal
to the success of water quality
management plans

Who is the Charter For? (cont)

A set of high level principles, aimed at
politicians, government officials,
regulators and senior water utility
managers
The Bonn Charter Implementation
Guide will assist those involved in
putting the principles into practice
alongside the WHO Guidelines
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Key Principles
Need for an integrated approach
Close co-operation between all in the supply
chain
Transparency vital for consumer confidence
Drinking water quality standards, at
consumers taps, will depend upon local
circumstances, but
Should cover both safety and acceptability
Need for clarity of responsibilities for each
part of supply chain
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The Goal

Good safe drinking water that

has the trust of consumers

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The Bonn Framework

Water
Treatment Distribution Consumer
resources
system system
& sources
responsibilities

Knowledge
Roles and

Drinking water quality management plan

sharing
Verification of drinking water quality

The goal :
Good safe drinking water which has
the trust of consumers

The Future Framework

Bonn
Charter

International guidance

WHO
Guidelines

All those contributing to the provision of a

water supply system

Local laws/policies/institutions/procedures
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 Legitimacy
Bonn
Charter

International guidance
WHO
Guidelines

Formal adoption by
All those contributing to the provision leadership
of a water supply system organisations in each
country

Local laws/policies/institutions/procedures 11

The New WHO Guidelines

The Guidelines:
A substantive revision of approaches to ensuring microbial safety
Takes account of important developments in microbial risk
assessment and its linkages to risk management
Experience has shown that microbial hazards:
Continue to be the primary concern in both developing and
developed countries
Highlight the importance of a systematic and integrated approach
towards securing microbial safety
The new (third) edition of the Guidelines:
Includes significantly expanded coverage of the integrated
approach
Builds on principles such as the multiple barrier principle and the
importance of source protection 12

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WHO Guidelines (cont)
The Guidelines include:
a drinking-water safety framework
a quality management approach for drinking-water
systems from catchment to tap
assessment of the health risk presented by
- microorganisms
- chemicals
- radiological
Control of microbial contamination must
always be of paramount importance and must
never be compromised.
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WHO Guidelines (cont)

Disinfection should not be compromised
in attempting to control disinfection by-
products
As chemical contaminants are normally
associated with adverse health effects
only after long-term exposure, they are
considered a lower priority category
than microbial contaminants.
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Water Quality Management
Plans
Team covering source/resource to tap
Identify hazards
Assess and rank risks
Review critical control measures
Validate results of study and establish WQMPs
Establish required improvement plans
Implement WQMPs
Monitor operation of WQMPs
Verify results through sampling and analysis
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Risk Assessment
One approach is to use HACCP
used in food industry
it is a highly disciplined approach
but can result in a lot of documentation
important that the management process
doesnt assume greater importance than
the water process controls

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Risk Assessment (cont)
The Bonn Charter Group stressed
the importance of identifying the most
important risks
assessing the effectiveness of current
controls
improving the controls where necessary
having operational methods of monitoring
that the controls are working
having reaction plans if there are failures

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Water Quality Management

Plans
System Assessment
Catchment/source
Treatment
Distribution
Consumers systems
Monitoring
Each part of the supply system
Management this is the plan
Surveillance checking that the plan is
working
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Assessment of Controls
Having identified and ranked the risks
What controls are in place?
Are they adequate?
Are they monitored effectively
For example
Faecal contamination may be a high risk due to
the likelihood of frequent occurrence and serious
consequences
Are disinfection measures continuously adequate?
Is monitoring sufficient to identify any failures in
disinfection?
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Example: Simple source

hazard and controls
Animal contamination of a well may be
considered a high risk
How well is the well-head protected
from animals is the fencing or the
plinth adequate?
How often is the security of the well-
head checked? Is this sufficient?

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Standards and Analysis
So can we close down our laboratories?
No, sampling, analysis, audit and inspection
still have an important place
Standards are still required to establish the
specification of safe water
Still necessary to check the quality of water
delivered to the tap
Consumer confidence is dependent on that
verification
However, the verification process can be
simplified
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Personal View: DWI

Risk assessment identifies key controls
Operational monitoring checks that those
controls are working
Indicators of quality (e.g. turbidity) become
more important
Regulators place emphasis on checking that
WQMPs are in place and working but also
introduce random independent sampling
Verification is achieved through reduced
frequency statutory sampling
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The Charter Worldwide
The Charter was developed by a relatively
small group of people
However, the principles are considered to be
applicable universally
Seminars are planned across the world
WHO and IWA together are planning a series
of workshops across China
Potentially large impact on the safety of
drinking water and thus health

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The Launch
The Bonn Charter and the new WHO
Guidelines are complementary
They will continue to be developed together
So they are being launched together at the
IWA Congress in Marrakech in September
The aim is to give awareness of their
importance to governments, regulators and
water utility personnel

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