Fresh Water Safety Plan: 2026 [paper]

This Water Safety Plan provides a systematic framework for managing the safety of potable water on board, from the source to the point of use. The plan adopts the hazard analysis and critical control point approach recommended by the WHO Guide to Ship Sanitation, Third Edition (Chapter 2), and addresses the shipowner’s obligation under MLC 2006.

• Section 1 establishes the purpose and applicability of the plan.
• Section 2 sets out a complete description of the vessel’s potable water infrastructure: tank specifications, design and location, distribution system layout, bunkering facilities and reverse osmosis production.
• Section 3 identifies biological, chemical and physical hazards relevant to the vessel’s potable water system and assesses their risk level.
• Section 4 sets out the preventive controls applied at each stage of the water supply chain (bunkering, storage, distribution, on-board production and disinfection) and identifies the critical control points where loss of control would present an immediate risk to water safety.
• Section 5 defines the daily, weekly, monthly and periodic inspection and testing regime. Daily monitoring includes tank levels and visual assessments of water quality and chlorine residuals.
• Section 6 provides the detailed super-chlorination procedure for use following suspected contamination, tank entry, repair or drydock.
• Section 7 assigns personnel responsibilities across the management chain and defines corrective actions for each category of failure (visual contamination, low chlorine residual, high temperature, microbial detection, tank damage, cross-connection and unreliable bunkering source).
• Section 8 establishes training requirements for all crew involved in water operations, designates the Chief Officer as Water Safety Officer, and requires refresher training annually, on joining the vessel, and following any contamination incident.
• Section 9 establishes the protocol for verifying potable water sources before bunkering and for quality assurance of on-board reverse osmosis production. This section gives effect to the principle that preventing contamination at the source is a key tenet of the water safety plan approach.
• Section 10 addresses internal communication (daily briefings, crew alerts, notice boards) and external reporting obligations.
• Section 11 consolidates the monitoring regime into a single reference table covering all daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual and drydock tasks, with assigned responsibilities, test parameters and record formats.