Water & Sanitation Safety Plan (WSSP) is considered an internationally best practice for assessing and managing public health risks of drinking-water supply and sanitation system. These concerns assume greater significance when dealing with widespread contagion like the one emerging from novel corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic. Hence, a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach in all steps of the water supply and sanitation system needs to be prepared, so that besides securing reliable delivery of safe drinking water in the project areas, the project broadens the emphasis of water quality management.

It is in this backdrop that an integrated WSSP is being put in place in all the GPs covered under the WBDWSIP to ensure safety of water to be supplied by each of the GPs of the project area. This WSSP entails understanding of the complete water supply and sanitation system, guides to identify where and how public health hazards could arise, suggests means to address the challenges by putting appropriate management systems in place, and mechanism to facilitate that all parts of the system function properly.

In other words, WSSP is a risk assessment-based tool for safety management of the water supply and sanitation system, which is not only based on treatment but also considers multiple factors such as behavioural, managerial and technological to prevent or limit occurrence/exposure to hazardous events affecting water and sanitation quality. It also coordinates improvement and monitoring by various actors across the entire chain of water supply process from source to delivery to the end-consumer and the sanitation value chain from point of generation to the containment system/treatment of the waste. WSSP at the GP level has been first launched in India by SIGMA Foundation with the support of Government of West Bengal and Asian Development Bank.