The Community water planner: A tool for small communities to develop drinking water management plans was a web-based tool developed to help assess and manage the risks in remote Australian community water supplies. This tool is no longer available.
Publication Data
The Community Water Planner was developed collaboratively by NHMRC and the National Water Commission to assist managers of small and remote community water supplies in managing microbiological, physical, chemical and radiological water quality risks. The tool used community-specific information to identify significant risks and to recommend appropriate risk management and monitoring strategies as part of a tailored risk management plan. The Community Water Planner was decommissioned on 12 June 2020 as the platform was no longer supported. The Water Quality Advisory Committee will be considering an update to the tool as part of the 2022-2025 workplan.
Local community water managers can refer to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG) (2011) risk management framework for information on the management of drinking water in Australia. Chapter 4 of the guidelines provides advice on the application of the framework to small water supplies.
Water managers are also encouraged to access existing risk management plan templates that may be available from jurisdictional drinking water regulators:
- Australian Capital Territory
- New South Wales
- Northern Territory
- Queensland
- South Australia
- Tasmania
- Victoria
- Western Australia
Water Research Australia’s published the Community Water Planner Field Guide as a companion resource to the Community Water Planner. Please contact Water Research Australia if you have any questions about the Field Guide.
See here for a list of additional resources which were previously available through the Community Water Planner.
If you have further questions please contact water@nhmrc.gov.au.
