Drinking water quality policy

Policy statement

Barwon Water is committed to managing its water supply effectively to provide safe, high quality drinking water to its customers and ensure public health.

Purpose

This purpose of this policy is to direct the implementation and use of a preventive risk management approach and the HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) quality management system to deliver on the key water quality aspects of Barwon Water’s Strategy 2030.
This will ensure compliance with the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act (2003) and the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Australian drinking water guidelines.

Scope

All managers and employees involved in the supply of drinking water are responsible for understanding, implementing, maintaining and continuously improving the drinking water quality management system.

Policy details

Barwon Water is committed to working with its customers and other relevant agencies to:

  • sustainably manage water quality at all points along the delivery chain, from source water to the consumer
  • protect water quality by improving the health of catchments and waterways through effective partnerships with stakeholders, including council, relevant catchment agencies and privatelandholders
  • utilise a risk-based approach where potential threats associated with water quality are identified and balanced
  • integrate the needs and expectations of consumers, stakeholders, regulators and employees into planning
  • promote confidence in water supply and management through regular monitoring of drinking water quality and effective reporting mechanisms to provide relevant and timely information
  • develop appropriate contingency planning and incident response capability to ensure that public health is effectively protected
  • participate in appropriate investigative and process optimisation activities to ensure continued understanding of drinking water quality issues and performance
  • establish good working relationships with the Department of Health and contribute to the debate on setting industry regulations and guidelines
  • continually improve practices by assessing performance against corporate commitments and stakeholder expectations.

This policy was last reviewed 9 October 2020.