PD ISO/TS 24522:2019

What is ISO/TS 24522- EDP for water and wastewater utilities about?  

ISO/TS 24522 has been created in response to an international demand for guidelines on the development of an event detection process (EDP) for drinking water and wastewater utilities (water utilities). 

ISO/TS 24522 guides water utilities on the detection and classification of water and wastewater events.  The following subjects are mentioned in ISO/TS 24522: 

• Publicly and privately owned and operated water utilities. It does not favour any particular ownership or operating model 
• All aspects of the drinking water system and the wastewater system 
• All causes of abnormal changes in water and/or wastewater service provision capable of detection by monitoring systems including accidents, unexpected operational changes, natural hazards and intentional disruption. 

Note: ISO/TS 24522 addresses a wider range of event causation than that implied by the definition of ‘hazard’ in the WHO manuals. 

Who is ISO/TS 24522- EDP for water and wastewater utilities for? 

ISO/TS 24522 on event detection process is beneficial for: 

• Industrial waste treatment plants 
• Water treatment plant operators 
• Health and safety bodies 
• Regulatory authorities 
• Local and National authorities 

Why should you use ISO/TS 24522- EDP for water and wastewater utilities? 

ISO/TS 24522 aims to support water utilities in the development of an EDP that monitors the relevant variables across their water/wastewater services and evaluates changes in those variables that can suggest an event has either occurred or could be imminent. 

ISO/TS 24522 aims to be consistent with both the World Health Organization (WHO) Water Safety Plan approach for water supply and the WHO Sanitation Safety Planning approach for wastewater collection, treatment and disposal or reuse. Both take a risk-based approach to evaluating uncertainty about the quality and significance of data that suggests the occurrence of an event. 

Outputs from an EDP could help inform those within the water utility responsible for identifying events and alerting individuals responsible for event response decision-making. Such alerts could be required despite uncertainty about the quality and reliability of the data currently available. 

The guidelines could be of particular use to those water utilities that wish to enhance their ability to recognize abnormal events as a means to: maintain or improve public health provision; improve their operational processes; enhance the levels of their service provision; or reduce risks to the continued delivery of existing service levels. 

In addition, development of an EDP can be a valuable aid to organizational learning and memory. The existence of an effective and efficient EDP provides a significant control against the risk of loss of individuals’ knowledge and expertise by increasing a water utility’s independence from such vulnerable resources. Regular use and review of an EDP’s successes and failures can contribute to organizational learning and a reduction in the time taken to detect an event.