DIN Standards Committee Water Practice
DIN EN 15975-1
Security of drinking water supply - Guidelines for risk and crisis management - Part 1: Crisis management; German version EN 15975-1:2011
Sicherheit der Trinkwasserversorgung - Leitlinien für das Risiko- und Krisenmanagement - Teil 1: Krisenmanagement; Deutsche Fassung EN 15975-1:2011
Overview
This European Standard describes good practice principles of drinking water supply management in the event of a crisis, including preparatory and follow-up measures. This document has been prepared by Working Group 15 "Security of drinking water" of CEN/TC 164 "Water supply". This guideline describes the fundamentals of crisis management, including relevant recommendations for drinking water suppliers, and offers examples drawn from disaster and crisis management organisations within the relevant contributing national authorities. Drinking water suppliers should have at their disposal appropriate equipment, sufficiently qualified personnel and reliable quality assurance measures. They should be organised in such a way as to ensure their services are provided in a safe, reliable, environmentally friendly and economical manner under normal supply conditions. The existence of an effective and efficient risk management system will support any organisation's crisis management process. Guidelines on risk management regarding the security of drinking water supply exist in a separate document (EN 15975-2, in development). Extremely rarely however, certain situations occur that drinking water suppliers may not be able to control without significant third-party assistance and the involvement of the relevant authorities. These situations are difficult to forecast and, therefore, impossible to make detailed provisions for. They are characterised by the absence of, or the presence of ambiguous, information and high risk with severe potential consequences. The situation's degree of complexity due to the involvement and interaction of different players and its high degree of intrinsic dynamics make it difficult to control. Key personnel involved may suffer from a high degree of pressure regarding decision-making, time and justification requirements while having at their disposal only a limited number of resources at the same time. Internal and external communications may work either not at all or only unsatisfactorily. Appropriate decisions need to take into account the specific circumstances of the crisis and the key objectives for restoration of normal water supply services. These guidelines have been developed by CEN to support that aim. The objectives of these guidelines are to enable the drinking water supplier to take action in the event of a crisis in order to ensure the continued supply of water to the greatest possible extent and to restore normal operating conditions as quickly as possible. The management tools required to achieve these objectives are explained in this standard. Basic steps of the workflow described in this standard may also be used during normal operations which have the potential to become a crisis. Across Europe there are many different ways to organise drinking water supply. The responsibility for crisis management may differ depending on legislation and organisational structures. In this document the term "drinking water supplier" is used to reflect all the different organisational structures. Member States may chose to specify these structures in more detail. National legislation may impose definitions that differ from the ones defined in this standard. In this case the necessary adaptations should be made in the application of this standard. The Committee responsible for this standard is NA 119-06-04 AA "Dienstleistungen im Bereich der Trinkwasserversorgung und Abwasserentsorgung (ISO/TC 224)" ("Service activities relating to drinking water supply systems and wastewater systems (ISO/TC 224)") at DIN.
