Water safety plans have been used in Kyrgyzstan to achieve safer water quality through their role in improving community management of water supply systems, delivering more effective government water quality surveillance and informing a water supply and sanitation investment planning process. This paper reflects on two different projects that were implemented in Kyrgyzstan and considers how the two could be combined to use water safety plans in an important new way - safe water investment planning. It is based upon Atkins' work for DFID, from 2002-2006, and for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2008 and 2009.