In the blog this week we suggest five ways that Estates Managers should be prepared for managing water safely…

What is a little used outlet?

Any outlet that is used infrequently or that may be subject to intermittent use is classed as a little used outlet. The definition of “infrequent use” may vary between applications and will depend not only on frequency and duration of use, but also other risk factors, such as water temperature and the vulnerability of the population.

It is all well and good commissioning an external service provider to complete your risk assessments, but have you ever considered those persons, the ‘risk assessors’, who will be looking at your properties and water systems?

The objective of this blog is help those with responsibility to commission risk assessments to think not just about ‘getting the risk assessments in place’ but to consider the ability of the risk assessor.

Image credit: BBC news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42808302  

Recent news articles such as this one in the Guardian newspaper have highlighted an initiative driven by industry body Water UK and campaigners Refill to make free drinking water refill stations widely available to the public in order to reduce plastic waste:

If you're a building owner or premises manager, according to UK legislation you're responsible for managing risks within your buildings - including water systems. 

HSE have removed the two year frequency for risk assessments, they now suggest a set of criteria against which risk assessments can be reviewed. 

MacFarlan Smith's plant on Wheatfield Road | Image credit: ©kim traynor (cc-by-sa/2.0)

This blog outlines what occurred and what is happening now.  A useful reminder on how important it is to have suitable and sufficient water management risk systems in place.

As recap on the first and second parts of this blog series on sampling, we’ve already covered; sampling strategy, taking a water sample and the chain of custody. In this final blog of the series, we will now outline some of the ‘mysteries’ of what actually happens once a sample is received by the test laboratory…

Last week we looked at the planning process required before any samples are taken. This week we get down to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of bottle filling…

Sampling of water systems for legionella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa or bacteriological can be somewhat daunting, thoughts of ‘do I need to sample’, ‘how to take a sample’ and ‘where do I need to send the samples’. This blog is aimed to provide some background on the sampling process…

What can TVCs tell us about our building water systems?

In Part 1, we learned about the organisms behind TVC counts and the method of analysis. This week we’ll look at when it’s appropriate to use TVC readings in building water safety and what the readings can tell us about the condition of our water systems.