Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal E-mail:
Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Energía y Agua, Torre Ejecutiva Sur - Liniers 1324 Piso 2, CP 11100, Montevideo, Uruguay.
J Water Health. 2023 Oct;21(10):1448-1459. doi: 10.2166/wh.2023.101.
The establishment of national strategic frameworks for systematic scaling-up of water safety plans (WSPs) implementation needs to overcome major constraints: lack of legislation and policies, and the need for appropriate monitoring tools. In 2018, the Uruguayan regulator for energy and water services promulgated a regulation intended to ensure an ambitious and pragmatic strategy that supports and promotes WSP implementation and auditing at a national scale. The goal is to have all drinking water supply systems with their WSP implemented by 2030. For this, a demanding schedule was recommended considering the size of the drinking water supplies: (i) large systems serving more than 2,000 inhabitants and (ii) small and very small systems serving fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. A mandatory verification through internal and external audits was also established. This work describes the legal and regulatory framework as well as the challenges and opportunities that open up for the generalization of WSP implementation in Uruguay. Despite the impact of COVID-19 on working conditions for water suppliers, as for the year 2022, WSPs have been successfully implemented in 94 water systems serving more than 2.4 million people. Results of successful implementation and auditing processes are presented and discussed covering methods and outcomes.
建立国家战略框架以系统地扩大水安全计划（WSP）的实施需要克服重大限制：缺乏立法和政策，以及需要适当的监测工具。2018 年，乌拉圭能源和水务监管机构颁布了一项规定，旨在确保一项雄心勃勃且务实的战略，以支持和促进全国范围内的 WSP 实施和审计。目标是到 2030 年所有饮用水供应系统都实施 WSP。为此，考虑到饮用水供应的规模，推荐了一个苛刻的时间表：（i）为 2000 多居民服务的大型系统，和（ii）为不到 2000 居民服务的小型和微型系统。还建立了强制性的内部和外部审计验证。本工作描述了乌拉圭 WSP 实施的法律和监管框架以及面临的挑战和机遇。尽管 COVID-19 对供水商的工作条件产生了影响，但截至 2022 年，已有 94 个为超过 240 万人服务的水系统成功实施了 WSP。介绍并讨论了成功实施和审计过程的结果，涵盖了方法和结果。
