WHO Sanitation Safety Planning Methodology Training Course

Course overview

Sanitation systems can fail at multiple points between containment, emptying, transport, treatment, reuse and disposal. Utilities, municipalities, humanitarian agencies and service providers need a defensible way to identify where people are exposed to faecal pathogens, assess the severity and likelihood of each hazardous event, and prioritise controls within real operating and budget constraints. This course applies the WHO Sanitation Safety Planning (SSP) methodology to help practitioners move from broad sanitation assessments to an evidence-based risk management plan that can be implemented, monitored and improved.

Participants work through the full SSP process: assembling an SSP team; defining the system boundary; mapping sanitation service chains; identifying exposure groups and hazardous events; assessing risks; selecting and validating control measures; developing operational monitoring procedures; and preparing management, verification and communication arrangements. They learn to use risk matrices, sanitary inspection findings, operational data, faecal sludge flow information and stakeholder consultation to create a practical SSP rather than a report that remains on a shelf.

Instructor-led briefings are combined with facilitated case analysis, mapping workshops and group application exercises based on urban, peri-urban and humanitarian sanitation scenarios. Participants produce a structured SSP portfolio containing a system description, hazard and exposure register, risk-ranking matrix, control-measure plan, monitoring table and implementation roadmap. The portfolio provides both an immediate workplace template and evidence of the participant's ability to lead or contribute to SSP development.

The course is designed for experienced WASH and sanitation professionals responsible for planning, operating, regulating or improving sanitation services. It is particularly valuable where organisations are managing faecal sludge, wastewater, decentralised systems, emergency sanitation facilities or reuse schemes and need to demonstrate that public-health risks are being systematically controlled.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define an SSP scope, system boundary and multidisciplinary planning team for a sanitation service chain
• Map containment, conveyance, treatment, reuse and disposal pathways using an SSP system description
• Identify hazardous events, exposure groups and pathogen transmission routes across sanitation systems
• Apply a WHO-aligned likelihood-and-severity risk matrix to prioritise sanitation hazards
• Select preventive control measures and critical operational limits for high-priority risks
• Design an operational monitoring plan with indicators, frequencies, responsibilities and corrective actions
• Prepare verification, validation and review arrangements using sanitary inspections, field observations and monitoring data
• Produce an implementation-ready Sanitation Safety Plan with a prioritised improvement roadmap

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• WASH Programme Managers — who must reduce public-health risks across sanitation investments and service delivery contracts
• Sanitation and Faecal Sludge Management Engineers — who design or improve controls from containment through treatment and disposal
• Utility and Municipal Service Managers — who need operational monitoring systems for sewered and non-sewered sanitation services
• Humanitarian WASH Coordinators — who must manage sanitation risks in camps, collective centres and emergency settlements
• Environmental Health Officers and Regulators — who inspect sanitation facilities and need a structured basis for risk-based oversight
• Public Health and Development Consultants — who prepare sanitation assessments, improvement plans and donor-funded programme designs

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with sanitation service chains, including onsite containment, emptying, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse. Experience in WASH programming, utility operations, environmental health inspection, faecal sludge management, wastewater management or sanitation engineering is expected. Participants should be able to interpret simple monitoring data, read process diagrams and contribute to facilitated risk discussions. Prior knowledge of the WHO Sanitation Safety Planning manual is helpful but not required. No laboratory expertise, advanced epidemiology, GIS proficiency or specialist modelling software is required; course templates and risk matrices are supplied.

Training methodology

The five-day programme alternates focused instructor-led sessions with practical SSP development. Participants analyse a sanitation case from system definition through to review arrangements, using WHO SSP templates, risk matrices, sanitary inspection evidence and operational monitoring tables. Small groups map service chains, test hazardous-event statements, score risks, challenge proposed controls and prepare realistic corrective actions. Facilitators provide technical feedback on each working document. The final session is an application clinic in which participants adapt their SSP portfolio and implementation roadmap to a priority system in their own organisation.

Course outline

Day 1: Foundations and sanitation system definition

• WHO Sanitation Safety Planning principles and public-health objectives
• Sanitation service-chain stages from containment to end use or disposal
• SSP team composition, roles and governance arrangements
• Defining system boundaries, populations and intended uses
• Gathering baseline information from drawings, inspections and operator records
• Developing system descriptions for sewered, onsite and hybrid systems
• Mapping users, workers, communities and other exposure groups

Workshop: Participants develop an SSP scope statement, stakeholder map and annotated sanitation service-chain diagram for a selected case system.

Day 2: Hazard identification and risk assessment

• Pathogen hazards and faecal-oral exposure pathways
• Hazardous events at containment, emptying and transport stages
• Hazardous events at treatment, reuse and disposal stages
• Identifying vulnerable populations and occupational exposure groups
• Writing precise hazardous-event and exposure scenario statements
• Likelihood and severity scoring using an SSP risk matrix
• Prioritising unacceptable and high-risk events for action

Workshop: Participants complete a hazard and exposure register, score priority events and defend their risk rankings in a peer review.

Day 3: Control measures and improvement options

• Preventive, corrective and mitigating control measures
• Matching controls to priority hazards and exposure routes
• Technical controls for onsite containment and faecal sludge emptying
• Controls for transport, treatment performance and worker protection
• Reuse and disposal controls for wastewater, sludge and biosolids
• Assessing control effectiveness, feasibility and residual risk
• Prioritising improvement actions by risk reduction, cost and ownership

Workshop: Participants build a control-measure plan linking each priority hazardous event to responsible owners, performance requirements and improvement actions.

Day 4: Monitoring, verification and management procedures

• Operational monitoring versus verification monitoring
• Selecting observable indicators and critical operational limits
• Monitoring frequencies, locations, methods and accountabilities
• Corrective actions and escalation procedures for control failure
• Sanitary inspections and field observation checklists
• Validation of control measures using evidence and performance data
• SSP documentation, review cycles and change-management triggers

Workshop: Participants create a monitoring and corrective-action table for their highest-priority controls and test it against a simulated control failure.

Day 5: Implementation, communication and workplace application

• Consolidating the SSP into an implementable management document
• Developing phased action plans and resource requirements
• Assigning accountability across utilities, authorities, contractors and communities
• Integrating SSP actions into standard operating procedures and contracts
• Risk communication for operators, users and decision-makers
• Using SSP findings to support investment proposals and regulatory engagement
• Reviewing SSP performance and updating the plan after system changes

Workshop: Participants present a completed SSP portfolio and 90-day implementation roadmap for facilitator and peer challenge.

Tools & standards covered

WHO Sanitation Safety Planning Manual, WHO Guidelines on Sanitation and Health, Microsoft Excel, QGIS

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions