Event organisers are now responding to the new legislation regarding drinking water quality at their festival or outdoor event. Regardless of the legislation the public’s expectations are ever increasing. The more discerning event organisers are raising the standards in the UK recognising that by providing an adequate and safe supply of drinking water the needs of the public and businesses operating for the duration of the event will be best served.
What is Gastroenteritis and how does it occur? There are many types of bacteria that can cause Gastroenteritis listed below are but a few of them:
Food poisoning often occurs from eating or drinking:
Your attention is drawn to how many of the above are caused in part by the use of contaminated water. This is usually caused by poor installation or maintenance of an installed water supply. It further underlines the need for extreme vigilance to be shown not just in fitting a water supply but also in continuous monitoring of the supply to ensure that it safe not just to drink but that it is also safe to be used in hand washing and the preparation of food.
Festival organisers should only use companies whose staff have undertaken the appropriate training. It is imperative that someone who holds the correct qualifications to supply water always supervises even those undertaking the most menial of tasks. All of our staff either hold these correct and up to date qualifications or are supervised by suitably qualified staff. We are well known in the industry for our continuous and on going training program. Installation of water supplies to festival and other outdoor events allows us to train people while on site. All the classroom training cannot possibly equip a person to deal with the many different types of problems, which can occur at each site, every festival is different. We therefore take the opportunity to up date the skills of our regular staff and to give any new staff the training and understanding, which will lead them to attaining the correct and up to date qualifications that should be expected by all festival organisers.
Provision of safe drinking water is governed by the Water Safety Regulation (HSG195). These regulations state that:
There can be no “corner cutting” when supplying safe drinking water to any event. Festival organisers may be told by other suppliers that some items that we have quoted to supply are not needed. The result of this can lead to quotes, which undercut Wicked Event Water Services. Our reputation matters more to us than losing an event due to being too expensive. Once a bad situation occurs at an outdoor event or festival it is not just remembered by the public, they will tell their friends of their experience. Their experience will determine whether or not they or their friends return to your next festival or outdoor event.
We at Wicked Events Water Services are not prepared to be associated with events where poor or shoddy workmanship results in an unhygienic or poorly performing water supply. We spend far too much money on training and equipment to allow everything including our reputation to be lost because of shoddy or inappropriate workmanship. We have been called in to many events to correct and make safe the work of other contractors. Rather like tackling a poorly fitted kitchen we often find that the only way forward is to take everything out and start again. The costs incurred by the organisers is thus a great deal more than it would have been had the job been correctly done from the start. While we are happy to be called in to undertake remedial work we have learned from the many times we have undertaken such work that short cuts or poorly maintained or inappropriate equipment is just not worth the risks involved.
Provision of