Hera and ISS: applying Water Safety Plans together

With years of excellent results behind it, Hera renews its commitment to outstanding potable water quality and, together with the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Higher Health Institute), aims to apply EU Water Safety Plans to its own mains water systems. A debate on the subject will be held on Wednesday 21 June.

Water Safety Plans are European protocols for step-by-step monitoring of potable water production and distribution processes. EU Directive 1787/2015 requests, in fact, that member states implement such protocols as soon as possible, and Hera - true to its own history - has no intention of waiting. With a long-standing record of thorough mains water monitoring and outstanding service performance that guarantees - across all served areas - low-priced, high-quality potable water, the multi-utility has now signed an agreement with the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) to apply, over the two-year period 2017-2018, complete Water Safety Plans on two of its mains water systems. This will allow us to acquire the methodology and develop the skills laid out in the directive guidelines, letting us extend Water Safety Plans to all our mains water systems.

This subject will soon be the focus of a conference for industry experts, to be held at the multi-utility's Bologna headquarters on Wednesday 21 June. Key Group managers will be in attendance, as will other institutions/bodies involved in the project.

Safety, then, first and foremost. The introduction of a precise, sound standard for all EU states lends further weight to the dedication shown by Hera in recent years. Thanks to extremely early commitment, in fact, the Group has had the infrastructure, analysis facilities and monitoring systems in place - all used on a daily basis - for some time now, allowing our over 3.6 million customers to drink domestic tap water in complete confidence. Guaranteed by no less than 2,000 checks a day, tap water plays a pivotal role in Hera's plans: indeed, the eighth edition of the annual In buone acque ('In good waters') report has now been published, giving a detailed account of every aspect of this essential service.

For some years, in fact, the Group has been working alongside Regione Emilia-Romagna and Arpae to develop an application methodology, based on risk analysis, to define water safety plans. That work has resulted in contributions to the Water Safety Plan Guidelines published by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in 2014 (ISTISAN report 14/21).

'As we see it', states Franco Fogacci, Hera Group's Water Manager, 'guaranteeing high quality drinking water has always been a top priority, so we can't help but find ourselves in agreement with the framework laid out in the EU Directive. Water Safety Plans', continues Fogacci, 'constitute a major challenge for everyone in the industry: we all need to do a great job of providing a response that ensures their effective, accurate implementation. Indeed, I think that Hera's vast experience', concludes the multiutility's Water Manager, 'lets us field the skills and resources that help drive such processes, their outcome going beyond the provision of practical services for served areas to provide great examples for other local areas'.

Luca Lucentini, Manager of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità 's Hygiene and Domestic Waters Department, points out:'Hera's willingness to implement water safety plans highlights the Group's constant focus on improving services. It also illustrates its confidence in a tool capable of strengthening prevention, even in systems that are highly advanced in terms of their management and control. The involvement of ISS and regional/local health authorities gives us an opportunity to expand Safety Plan experimentation in particularly complex drinking water supply systems (e.g. as regards provisioning sources, potential pressure sources and network extension/organisation). The results, then, will make a significant contribution to the development of regulations concerning the national-level Plan implementation and approval being coordinated by the Ministry of Health'

Adriana Giannini, the Collective Prevention and Public Health Service manager for the Region of Emilia-Romagna states: 'The agreement represents a further step along the path taken by the Health Policy Council back in 2012; this involves financing and coordinating a series of projects designed to improve potable water quality via the testing of a control system based on Water Safety Plan principles. Studies have led to the development of a statistical model that, where applied to mains water systems, allows identification of the most stable areas and others where there are problems, leading to 'risk categorization' and, consequently, suitable controls and corrections. The results obtained so far have been made possible by integrating the skills of project participants (local health authorities, Arpae, Hera and Ireti) and drawing on the support of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità . Such teamwork is essential to the successful implementation of new drinking water monitoring plans and, consequently, ever-greater protection of consumers' health'.

Giuseppe Bortone, General Manager of Arpae, points out: 'Arpae is delighted to be a Water Safety Plans project partner and promoter in Emilia-Romagna. In addition to planning/data processing skills and in-depth knowledge of past drinking water quality statistics, we also rely on a network of analysis facilities that provide - every day - safe mains drinking water and a wealth of reliable data. Once again, the Agency highlights its bent for improving production processes in a way designed to safeguard both the environment and people's health'.