Looking after your water supply
It’s important to look after your water supply to prevent dangerous bacteria such as Legionella from growing and affecting your or your family’s health. Here’s some useful information on what to look out for.
Legionella is a bacteria commonly found in water. The bacteria are inactive below 20°C and don’t survive above 60°C.
Legionella can grow in any home and can cause Legionnaires’ disease.
This is a potentially fatal type of pneumonia, contracted by inhaling airborne water droplets containing Legionella bacteria.
Anyone can develop Legionnaires’ disease, but the elderly, smokers, alcoholics and those with cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory or kidney disease are at more risk.
What can I do to keep the water safe in my home?
Legionella prefers to grow in stagnant or ‘standing’ water that has been sitting without moving for a significant amount of time. For that reason, it’s important to:
- flush out infrequently used water outlets (including showerheads and taps) weekly
- if you’re away from your home for one week or longer, you should flush out the outlets for a minimum of two minutes when you return
- clean and de-scale shower heads and hoses at least every three months
For more information, you can visit the Health and Safety Executive website.
Our service to you
We have contractors attending homes for risk assessments, water monitoring and water hygiene-related remedial work on our behalf. These contracts will run until May 2026.
Please help us by giving their operatives access to your home, so that they can do their routine inspections as and when they contact you.
The contractors are:
- Urban Environments cover the East, North, North East and West Neighbourhoods
- Integrated Water Services (IWS) cover South, South East, South West and Thames Neighbourhoods as well as the North West of England
- Orion Building Engineering Services Ltd cover water hygiene remedial work for East, North, North East and West Neighbourhood
- Life Environmental Services now covers water hygiene remedial work for South, South East, South West and Thames Neighbourhoods