2024 is here – it seems to have arrived without any of us fully realising. While the year might be new, water safety remains as crucial as ever, particularly for businesses. Whether you’ve just been winging it up to now or you’re actively using a water safety plan, you might be wondering how relevant they are nowadays. We’re convinced that they’re still the most effective way of tying together an overall approach to water safety in most situations – here’s why.
Water Safety Plan Defined
First, a few words on what a water safety plan actually consists of. The official guidance is quite broad – it basically states that the plan needs to be able to ensure the ongoing safe maintenance of the water supply in question.
The broadness of this definition is to try to ensure that it’s applicable to as many businesses in different scenarios as possible.
As a result of this relative ambiguity, you will likely need to seek assistance from a water hygiene specialist when it comes to actually designing and implementing a plan of your own.
Making your water safety plan
So, what will you actually need to do to make a water safety plan?
Water safety group
One of the main steps consists of creating a water safety group. As with other elements of the water safety plan, exactly what that group will look like will depend on the size and niche of your business.
In most cases, however, it will be relatively multidisciplinary, with a range of different representatives. Different members will have clear roles, including a Responsible Person and a Duty Responsible Person.
The group will need to be able to cater to the precise risks that your business is likely going to face, and should be able to build itself up accordingly with relevant experts.
Practical measures
While you’ll need to assign responsibility within the organisation, you’ll also need to take some important practical measures.
Part of the water safety plan will entail identifying clear risks, such as high levels of bacteria in water sources, and then taking action to mitigate those risks to acceptable levels.
Again, to identify these risks, you’ll likely need to bring in a water hygiene specialist so that they can carry out the necessary tests on your water systems.
What kinds of risks need to be taken care of?
While there are a range of different risks that you’ll need to consider during these tests, one of the most serious is the risk posed by Legionella bacteria.
Luckily, Legionella bacteria is relatively easy to identify, and it’s also quite simple to control its growth. By carrying out a range of tests and implementing certain changes, you can ensure that the conditions necessary for the bacteria’s rapid growth are never present.
Water safety is clearly still a critical issue that all businesses need to consider seriously. Water safety plans remain the most effective way of bringing your overall approach together, allowing you to create an efficient strategy to identify and eliminate risk wherever necessary.