When we start to think about risks in businesses nowadays, our mind often goes straight to maintaining a fresh brand and avoiding cyber attacks. Thinking about risk from this perspective is important, but it can often mean that important issues are forgotten about.
One of these is the risk posed by water contamination. Far from an issue relegated to the Victorian era and before, water contamination remains a serious issue that many businesses neglect to take seriously.
So today we are taking a broad overview, of your obligations as a business owner to the measures you must take in risk mitigation. I know but this is more important and issue than you would think.
Your obligations as a business owner
As a business owner, you have a clear obligation to provide your employees with reliable access to clean water at all times. This needs to be both potable and available for washing purposes; should your regular water system have an issue, you need to make sure that you have an alternative water source put into place. These responsibilities are really the very basics of running a business with brick-and-mortar premises; they need to be taken care of before pretty much anything else.
Specific risks you might face
There are both general and more specific risks that you might face in the context of water contamination.
More general hazards that can be found in pretty much all environments include things like (Legionella pneumophila), a kind of bacteria that can cause a serious form of atypical pneumonia. Found in most water sources naturally, you’ll need to make sure that the bacteria is not allowed to multiply to dangerous concentrations.
More specific risks could arise in contexts where dangerous chemicals are used. Mitigating these risks will require consulting an expert with experience in your field, both to achieve regulatory compliance and to achieve a practically effective solution.
Mitigating those risks
To mitigate any kind of threat in any kind of environment, you need to know what you’re working with. You’ll need to have various assessments carried out, particularly a Legionella risk assessment that should be conducted by an external water hygiene specialist.
Based on the findings of those risk assessments, you’ll be able to make changes to mitigate any present or emergent threats. That could mean controlling. the temperature that water is stored at, testing for chemicals on a regular basis or making other environmental changes.
The importance of ongoing diligence
Water contamination isn’t something that’s just fixed once and for all. To stay on top of it, you’ll need to commit to ongoing diligence, testing your water system on a regular basis to ensure your approach remains effective. You only need to take your eye off the ball for a second for an incident to occur, which could result in serious harm coming to your employees.
Water contamination is clearly a serious issue that deserves your attention. Managing the associated risks isn’t easy, but there are a number of technologies and services which exist that should make it totally manageable. It’s important to put systems in place early on so that you can prevent any issues long before they arise. It is important to be informed when you run a business and it is also worth knowing for your own home too.
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