Review of water risk management plan
Scheduled reviews of your water risk management plan (WRMP) will ensure effective management of the risks associated with the hazards, such as Legionella in the water distribution system.
Scope
Under section 61D(f) of the Public Health Act 2005, a WRMP must include a requirement for the WRMP to be reviewed and state when the review will take place.
What to include in the review
A management review of the WRMP provides an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan. This should include:
- Checking results of operational and verification monitoring to identify adverse trends or improvement opportunities. For example, if regular monitoring shows consistent achievement of effective control of hazards, the management review may recommend reduced verification monitoring.
- Responding to changes in the external environment. For example
- there may be improvement in analytical methods that can reduce costs or improve accuracy
- there may be changes in regulatory requirements that may require changes to the WRMP
- there may be improved methods or products for controlling hazards
- there may be changes to recognised best practice management approaches (for example, interstate or international regulation).
- Ensuring that key staff maintain the required skills and commitment to effectively implement the WRMP, in view of staff turnover or organisational changes.
The WRMP must include a schedule indicating how frequently the plan should be reviewed. The frequency of a scheduled review should be based on your WRMP risk assessment. However, in any case, the WRMP’s should be reviewed annually as a minimum.
Reasons/triggers for reviewing and updating your WRMP outside of the scheduled review period. For example:
- frequent detections of Legionella,
- other hazards in your water distribution system,
- a case of Legionnaires’ disease acquired within your facility,
- a significant change of the water infrastructure or incoming water supply,
- an organisational restructure that impacts staff/units with a key role in implementing the WRMP.
Resources
- National enHealth guidelines for Legionella control (PDF, 577KB) - section 5 (page 37)
- National risk management plan template (DOC, 164KB) - section 4 (page 13)