WATER HYGIENE & SAFETY
Establishing an effective water management plan
Paul Musgrove, Sales director at specialist in water consumption reduction, Ecoprod, looks at the fundamentals for hospitals and other healthcare facilities in establishing an effective water management strategy. He also discusses some of the latest products and technologies designed to simplify the process, reduce consumption, and cut costs.
The crisis facing water supplies in the UK is acute, with a potential drought on the horizon. All organisations are under pressure to use less water whenever possible, and this includes the NHS, which uses approximately 50 billion cubic metres of water per year,1
the UK’s largest water consumers. Using less water not only helps to preserve vital water supplies, but also has an additional benefit in terms of lower carbon emissions. Each m3
of water saved can
equate to a carbon reduction of between 21 and 560g.2
Thus any organisation
that is serious about reducing its environmental impact needs an effective water management strategy. A good water management strategy can help an organisation reduce the impact of its water use in three ways –
making it one of
firstly by identifying opportunities to use less water in the first place; secondly by detecting and reducing water wastage, and thirdly by facilitating the recycling and re-use of grey water and stormwater run-off wherever possible. This is as true in healthcare as it is in any other sector, as the NHS recognises.
Obligations on the NHS The NHS is committed to cutting the amount of water it uses3
through both
reducing wastage – for example from leaks, and improving the efficiency of its water use. The introduction of the Health and Care Act in 2022 also placed an obligation on the NHS to contribute towards a UK-wide Net Zero emissions target – NHS emissions are currently equivalent to 4% of the total carbon footprint of England.4
From April 2023,
the NHS has required all suppliers for contracts above £5 m per annum, to publish a Carbon Reduction Plan.5
All this
means that the importance of using less water across healthcare estates is widely recognised – indeed each NHS Trust should now have a Water Management Team set up; however Estates managers in healthcare face a particular set of additional challenges when it comes to effectively managing their water use. Firstly, any water management strategy designed to cut water use across a healthcare estate needs to take into account the stringent hygiene and water safety regulations to which healthcare facilities are subject.6
Any water-saving
technologies need to be specifically designed with the requirements of the healthcare environment in mind. For example, medical taps must comply with strict regulations and testing to ensure water hygiene, and so any low-flow taps installed with a view to reducing water use must also meet these standards.
A URIMAT Ecoplus urinal with MB Active Trap.
Age and diversity of buildings Healthcare providers often face challenges associated with the age and
CONTI+ taps are designed specifically for healthcare, and have both infection control and patient safety at the heart of their design.
diversity of both their buildings and their pipes and waste service. For example, data recently released by NHS Scotland showed that almost 200 sewage leaks were recorded between 2019 and 2023, largely attributed to ageing pipework.7 Engineering teams often have to work with a wide variety of types of pipework, and address other challenges – such as extreme lengths of pipework or deadlegs not removed during past building works, presenting the ideal environment for stagnation.7
Old thermostatic mixing
valves can be hidden behind new wall structures, making their day-to-day maintenance extremely challenging. Sensor taps and digital showers can reduce water use by up to 70%, while improving patient safety. Ecoprod has installed CONTI+ sensor taps into many healthcare environments.
November 2023 Health Estate Journal 63
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
