Pandemic Flu Planning for the Water Sector

A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. In a severe pandemic, absenteeism will increase from illness, the need to care for ill family members, and the fear of infection. Utilities that fail to prepare for the likelihood of pandemic flu may find themselves without the staff, equipment, or supplies necessary to continue providing safe drinking water or treating wastewater for their community. Utilities should integrate pandemic flu planning into existing business continuity and emergency response plans using available guidance documents and other tools for assistance.

EPA offers free tools and guidance materials to help utilities develop plans to prepare for and respond to pandemic influenza outbreaks.

You will need Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.

• Pandemic Influenza Planning and Preparedness: Lessons Learned for the Water Sector Webinar

• Pandemic Influenza Planning and Preparedness Webinar: Transferring Lessons into Best Practices (PDF) (2 pp, 543K)
  EPA-817-F-10-020, December 2010
  
  

• Pandemic Influenza Fact Sheet for the Water Sector (PDF) (2 pp, 40K)
  EPA-817-F-09-005, August 2009

• Water and Wastewater Sector Pandemic Guideline (Annex to the DHS Pandemic Influenza Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Guide for Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources)

• Top Ten List, Pandemic and Natural Disasters Notebook, Updating Emergency Response Plans (ERP) for Drinking Water and Wastewater Systems (PDF) (26 pp, 88K)
  EPA-817-F-09-005, August 2009

Additional Resources:

• For additional information on EPA's pandemic influenza preparedness activities go to: http://www.epa.gov/pandemicflu
  
  
• For information on the Federal government's pandemic influenza preparedness activities and related guidance, tools, and information go to: http://www.flu.gov
  
  
• Information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the current H1N1 pandemic can be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu
  
  
• For a global perspective, the World Health Organization (WHO) has up-to-date information on the current H1N1 pandemic and general pandemic influenza preparedness information at: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/pandemic/en
  
  
• Additional pandemic influenza preparedness resources for water utilities are available at: http://www.waterisac.org