Development of Methodology of Structural Audit for Water Treatment Plants to Improve Resilience to Natural Disaster

The supply of adequate quality and quantity of drinking water to the affected population in the relief camps is a significant post-disaster relief activity. Thus it is essential to keep the Water Treatment Plants (WTP) in a functional condition in the post-disaster scenario. Periodic Structural audit of WTP can ensure that the structural flaws and other non-structural defects, affecting the functionality of WTP are identified and rectified. A methodology for structural audit of WTP is developed in this paper shall be based on previous experience, an inspection of designs and drawings of WTP, use of visual tools such as photos, NDT methods, soil reports, electrical and mechanical designs, etc. to arrive at the inherent structural weakness, flaws in the WTP making it vulnerable to disaster. It is a questionnaire-based survey tool, to enlist all the salient information pertaining to the WTP. The survey is to be conducted only by expert surveyors having considerable exposure in the field of Water Supply Engineering. There are different types of WTP, the present exercise is focused on the conventional type of WTP which is the most popular and is located beside major rivers, and thus they are more prone to natural disasters. The expected outcome of the proposal is to improve the post-disaster response of the WTP structure to effectively ensure water supply to the affected population. This structural audit tool may be recommended to the water supply authorities to implement the process mandatorily by the imposition of bye-laws.