Safe drinking water in regional NSW, Australia

Paul Byleveld; Sandy Leask; Leslie Jarvis; Katrina Wall; Wendy Henderson; Joshua Tickell

doi:10.1071/phrp2621615

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Safe drinking water in regional NSW, Australia

Paul Byleveld ^A ^* , Sandy Leask ^A , Leslie Jarvis ^A , Katrina Wall ^A , Wendy Henderson ^A and Joshua Tickell ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Water Unit, Environmental Health Branch, Health Protection NSW, Sydney, Australia

^* Correspondence to: paul.byleveld@doh.health.nsw.gov.au

Public Health Research and Practice 26, e2621615 https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp2621615

Published: 15 April 2016

2016 © Byleveld et al. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, which allows others to redistribute, adapt and share this work non-commercially provided they attribute the work and any adapted version of it is distributed under the same Creative Commons licence terms.

Abstract

The New South Wales (NSW) Public Health Act 2010 requires water suppliers to implement a drinking water quality assurance program that addresses the “Framework for management of drinking water quality” in the Australian drinking water guidelines. NSW Health has recognised the importance of a staged implementation of this requirement and the need to support regional water utilities. To date, NSW Health has assisted 74 regional utilities to develop and implement their management systems. The Public Health Act 2010 has increased awareness of drinking water risk management, and offers a systematic process to identify and control risks. This has benefited large utilities, smaller suppliers, and remote and Aboriginal communities. Work is continuing to ensure implementation of the process by private suppliers and water carters.