Environmental Good Practice – Water Management Plans

A Water Management Plan (WMP) is a site-specific document that outlines how water will be used, managed, and protected during a construction project.  It is designed to prevent pollution, ensure compliance with environmental legislation, as well as manage water resources efficiently throughout a project’s lifecycle.  A WMP should include the following as appropriate to the project.

1. Understand site specific risks – assess how the project might interact with local water resources, identify nearby water bodies. determine site activities that could affect water and check site conditions, including flood risk, soil type, and groundwater levels.

2. Set clear objectives, i.e. define what the WMP aims to achieve.
3. Document inputs and outputs, for example inputs may include potable water supply and outputs groundwater abstraction.
4. Identify control measures
5. Regulatory compliance including regulatory requirements, permits or licences, monitoring and sampling requirements and inspection and reporting obligations.
6. Roles and responsibilities – clearly assign roles within the plan and make sure all personnel are briefed and understand their roles.
7. Monitoring and review
8. Communication – communicate the WMP to all relevant parties, prepare site plans/maps with drainage and storage areas marked up and make copies readily available and ensure they are included when conducting regular environmental drills

For full details and examples of what to include in a WMP see the CIP online Construction Environmental Manual