Beijing September 13 Urban Water Security Workshop: Planning and Response to Ensure Urban Water Resilience New Specialist Group on Water Security and Safety Management and the Major Consumer Initiative Bruno NGUYEN 1/16

First years of the 21st century have been marked by several disasters of great magnitude and diverse origins. What they all have in common is their damage to water supply systems and direct impact on the population: Long before the return to “normal life”, partial restoration of a “tolerable situation” for the affected people greatly depends on the availability of safe drinking water. destruction of the twin WTC towers in New-York, major flooding in eastern Europe, tsunami in Asia and Africa, earthquakes in Pakistan and India, pollution of a major river in China, hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi….  In a crisis situation, the quality and level of preparedness make the difference between chaos and an efficient response. A new Specialist Group on W2SM 2/16

Security Management in the Water Supply: Why ?  Ingestion, contact or breathing of inappropriate water may result in diseases and could cause death.  Pressure drops or interruption of water distribution may rapidly lead to sanitation problems and degradation of daily life; fire fighting is also a major issue. Water utilities will be held responsible: for their lack of anticipation, for their lack of preparation, for their inappropriate or insufficient reaction. Whenever a drinking water supply service has suffered interruption of distribution, or insufficient pressure, or bad water quality: 3/16

Security Management in the Water Supply: what risks? Water supply activity related risks: pollutions, breaks, backflow…. « part of the job » Natural Hazards: depending on location and more or less predictable, potentially high level of damages to the infrastructure. Indirect risks as a result of interdependency: interruption of power supply, communications, … delivery failure of reagents, transportation strikes… Terrorism: in a dangerous world, water supply is a potential target. Health risks: SRAS, Pandemic diseases. 4/16

The risks vary from immediate effect to longer time to fully expand: earthquakes = minutes floods = days droughts = weeks man made threats = ? For natural hazards that have already been recorded in the past in the same region, the question is not « IF », but « WHEN » it will come again. The concentration of human population and economic activity in urban centers raises the level of risks. About the Risks 5/16

Man made threats: what has changed ? Matters of security are now definitely part of the job. New challenges appear with new constraints but also with new opportunities to improve the water supply security. New relationships are being deployed between the water utilities and the authorities. 6/16

Questions How can the water supplier be prepared against a situation he has never met before ? Natural catastrophe or terrorist risk are beyond the water utility’s grasp; we can’t protect against everything. What is the limit ? When does the involvement of the authorities starts ? Who is in charge with what ? What protection for what cost ? What is the appropriate time scale to take into account for the sizing of protection means? How the new technologies can help ? 7/16

Some Answers  Water supply is a continuous activity. We need to be ready for crisis happening at any time.  We all have a probability of roughly 0.4 to face a centennial event during our working life.  Looking always at how to reduce the risks as part of any operational choice is a best practice.  There is bad luck, but there is much more bad preparedness.  The minimum level of security for a defined risk is often given by the population’s awareness of this risk.  Training with exercises can be a stress reducer when faced to a real situation. 8/16

 Thankfully, crisis on urban water supply are not frequent; on the other hand, sharing of information on those incidents is not easy.  To a certain extend, the way to react when: the resource is unavailable, the treatment process is not operational, the pipe network is down… is the same whatever the reason is.  Utilities were until recently used to dealing with « regular » water supply problems, but not with security matters for which the notion of risk has been re-evaluated since 9/11 to a tremendously and unforeseen higher level never reached before.  For this reason, they can’t afford spending time on a self learning process for water supply security: we need to learn from each others. More Thoughts 9/16

Risk Management Risk Assessment Responsibilities Preventing Training Detecting Triggering crisis Crisis management Learning The Risk Management Loop ! Analysis Preparedness Emergency response Return of experience 10/16

Water Supply Security Gauge 100 % 0 Risk Management and Security Level Water Utility Local level Regional level National level Risk management never leads to 100% security or zero risks. It just helps water suppliers to know at what level they are and if this level fits with their goals. Constraints Requirements Demands Risk Management 11/16

After the last IWA World Congress in Marrakech 2004, Paul Reiter and Michael Rouse expressed their wish to see a new Specialist Group launched on Security and Safety Management issues. This Specialist Group has been created in The first committee meeting of the Water Security and Safety Management Specialist Group was held today a few hours ago. A new Specialist Group on W2SM 12/16

1.IWA Introductory Comments 2.Objectives and Scope of the W2SM Specialist Group 3.Constitution of task forces focusing on issues such as Natural Disaster Preparedness and Response Man-made Disaster Preparedness and Response Vulnerability & Risk Management Models Research, Development and Emerging Technology Solutions Professional Training, Public Education and Communication Others to be proposed 4.Guiding principle for the development of technical activities 5.Upcoming conferences & participation of W2SM 6.Technical activities proposed for the next year 7.Other issues WATER SECURITY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT SG MEETING September 13 – 1:30 to 2:15

What will the W2SM Specialist Group work on? “Best Practices”:  define measures to be taken in order to ensure continuous drinking water supply and waste water operation. Management of crisis situations in the water supply:  create an international database on water related or water concerned crisis situations and to record the lessons learned.  use the IWA International Network to provide links and be used as a reservoir of experts ready to offer online help and advice in water issues whenever and wherever it is needed. The W2SM specialist group will offer its help in setting up and organizing this response. R&D:  keep up to date and informed on recent R&D and new technologies in the field of Water Security and Safety Management and their in site testing reported by group members. From the various cultural viewpoints within the framework of the IWA, different approaches and experiences are expected to emerge from discussions and group work. 13/16

Major Consumers Initiative: Why ?  Under crisis situations, the normal standards for water supply won’t be attained. There are many possible levels of degradation of the service from lower pressure, lower quality or just lack of any water.  The standards for normal operation of the water systems vary from a country to another or from a city to another; but generally speaking, they are known in terms of pressure, availability, quantity and quality.  This being said, what are the consequences of the degradation of the water service for the end user ? 14/16

The Domestic Users: They need water in quantity, but possibly of poor quality if boiling ensures that there is no health consequences. Health Centers: An hospital needs access, power supply and water supply in order to be able to operate. If one of these elements lacks, the hospital has to be evacuated. Is there a need to work hard for water supply restoration whenever for example power supply cannot be restored yet ? The bakers: If they cannot cook their breads, the local life of the neighborhood will be significantly impacted ! But bakers use water during nights more than during days… Industrial users: Their use of water depends on their industrial process, for which low pressure or low quality may not be temporarily unbearable. Some Examples 15/16

In their efforts to restore the water supply that has been impacted, the utilities have to make choices and to define priorities for action. The response management under crisis situation should aim at lowering the effects of the crisis on the end-user. In order to be more efficient, we need to know better the consequences of any possible degradation of the water supply service for the customer. The Major Consumer Initiative It is easier to start with the Major Consumers… 16/16

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