New safe drinking water guidelines have been released to the Australian water industry.

Water Research Australia (WaterRA) has published the Good Practice Guide to the Operation of Drinking Water Supply Systems for the Management of Microbial Risk (Second Edition).

The guide provides managers and operational staff, who have the responsibility for the operation of drinking water supply systems, a concise reference document on the requirements for optimising the processes that are used to produce microbially-safe drinking water.

The new version includes additional treatment unit processes along with accompanying system evaluation templates.

It has developed into an evaluation and benchmarking tool and is being utilised to set upgrade priorities and budgets throughout Australian water utilities.

Included in the research scope was the aim to make the content more accessible and user friendly; by improving clarity of definitions and removing ambiguity over assessments of “partial compliance”.

Additional treatment unit processes have been included in the second edition, along with accompanying assessment templates.