The launch in 2004 of the 3rd edition of the WHO guidelines for drinking water quality [1] jointly with the IWA Bonn Charter for safe Drinking Water [2] marked the culmination of a huge shift in worldwide advice on water quality management that had been evolving for some years. This redressed the balance of effort away from reliance solely on end product testing towards a more proactive, risk prevention approach known as a Water Safety Plan (WSP). In essence this is a regularly repeated cycle of assessing and managing water quality risks from catchment to consumer. This paper will briefly review the WSP approach to managing drinking water quality with a particular focus on metals in drinking water and describe how the principles in the Bonn Charter can be used to develop effective partnerships to minimise such risks.
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