Failure scenarios in water supply system by means of fault tree analysis

Failure analysis need include the entire water supply system (WSS), from source to tap. Such events can cause interruptions in the supply of water or secondary water pollution in the water-pipe network. These pollution events may occur for many reasons such as: unfavorable hydraulic conditions of the network operation (low-speed flow), combined with older pipelines or chemical instability of water. In the paper the failure scenarios analysis framework was reviewed, in order to determine likelihood of occurrence of top undesirable event (threat to water consumers) Fault Tree Analysis was used. The paper contains the methodology of the analysis and two examples of application-analysis of the whole and part of created fault tree. The analysis includes two main situations: lack of water and contaminated water delivered to consumer. The objective of the paper is to discuss the role of failure analysis for decision making process and preventive strategies.