Water Control

LEGIONELLA

It is an infectious agent, legionella pneumophila, an aerobic gram negative bacilli bacteria, that often grows in large filaments.

Legionella is a microorganism which, in addition to being found in natural aquatic habitats such as rivers and lakes, has found a suitable ecological niche in water systems that have been created and manipulated by man, where they can develop in densities that are far superior to those found in the natural environment.

Where it is found
In practice, Legionella is found in surrounding or semi-stagnated water systems, and its nutritional requirements include iron compounds, making it a source of infection in the following places:

• Cooling towers.

• Evaporative condensers.

• Jacuzzis and warm water swimming pools or ones with no movement.

• Ornamental fountains.

• Cold water networks for human consumption.

• Domestic hot water networks.

• Other water systems that can produce aerosols.

How it is spread
Through curtains of micro droplets which are inhaled by people, being the cause of the disease known as pneumonia or Legionnaires' Disease.

How to fight against it The methodology to be used for the correct control of Legionella is given in Decree 352/2004 of 27 July and in Royal Decree 865/2003 of 4 July, which established the hygienic and health criteria for the prevention and control of Legionella.

SAHICASA offers its customers a work system that covers all of the needs required in these Decrees.

All our treatments and measures are based on Royal Decree 140/2003, which establishes the health criteria for the quality of water for human consumption and on Decree 352/2004 and Royal Decree 865/2003.

Our technical staff have all studied approved courses for training people who carry out hygienic and health maintenance operations on facilities at risk of Legionella (pursuant to Order SCO/317/2003).

The facilities must be kept in an optimum state of cleanliness and disinfection, for which we follow a strict plan that ensures these parameters:

• The cleaning and descaling of tanks, circuits and diffusers.

• Disinfection of all the parts of the network

• Ongoing disinfection of the water in the circuit

It is important to be totally familiar with the facilities that are going to be subjected to the control programme. Therefore we must define the individual peculiarities of each circuit, delimiting the areas at greater risk as well as the different parts and their functioning.

• Description of the facilities, defining the critical points

• Training of the team responsible

• Drawing up the operations plan

• Scheme of the facilities

We draw up a plan of each facility that includes all its components, indicating the critical points or zones from which water samples are to be taken.

Controlling the water of the facility We ensure the quality of the water with products, dosage and procedures, as well as with the introduction of physical, chemical and biological control parameters, measuring methods and their frequency.

• Physical and chemical analysis of the water

• Determination of the Legionella

• Determination of the free chlorine

• Measurement of temperatures

Cleaning and disinfection The facilities must be kept in an optimum state of cleanliness and disinfection, for which we follow a strict plan that ensures these parameters:

• The cleaning and descaling of tanks, circuits and diffusers.

• Disinfection of all the parts of the network

• Ongoing disinfection of the water in the circuit

 

DRINKING WATER

Cold domestic water and water for human consumption, drinking water, is a basic element for people's health, and its control is very important as well as being complex due to the huge amount of drinking water that is consumed as well as the thousands of kilometres of pipes that make up the drinking water networks of municipalities and, above all, the complexity of water itself.

Sahicasa provides a drinking water control service, through diagnosis, assessment, sample taking and disinfection, if necessary, to ensure top-quality water in the consumer's tap.

At present, the reference legislation is Royal Decree 140/2003, however companies must be aware of all the changes and modifications that occur in this area, in many case through European directives, above all concerning the materials and chemical products that are used in the process to make water drinkable through to its arrival in the consumer's tap.

Sahicasa draws up Complete Autocontrol Plans for Drinking Water to ensure compliance with current regulations as well as correct hygienic and health maintenance of the installations.

 

JACUZZIS, SWIMMING POOLS AND SIMILAR

In the last decade, there has been a boom in the use of hydromassage baths (Jacuzzis) in the tourist offer in our country to accompany the heated or not heated swimming pools that already existed.

This has meant, in some cases, that the training of technicians responsible for the maintenance of these installations was not the most suitable for the complex nature of the control, maintenance and above all in knowing how to respond when there are significant deviations.

Sahicasa, in addition to offering assessment and participating in compliance with current legislation regarding swimming pools (also regarding legionella in the case of Jacuzzis), offers top quality technical support to interpret the microbiology and chemistry of the water.

Sahicasa offers the control service of all kinds of swimming pools through diagnosis, assessment, daily maintenance, treatment plan and taking samples to ensure the health of bathers.

Sahicasa draws up Complete Autocontrol Plans for Swimming Pool Maintenance to ensure compliance with current regulations as well as correct hygienic and health maintenance of the installations.

 

AUTOCONTROL PLANS

This is a transversal service to all the services that Sahicasa offers for controlling water and in the environmental area in general. The main objective is to help customers know what they need to do, and when and how precisely to do so, but also in a clear and simple way regarding the measures that the customer is recommended to carry out.

This Autocontrol Plan mainly consists of:

• Initial diagnosis of the facilities.

• Setting up a programme of measures to comply with the regulations and in keeping with the Sahicasa guidelines and diagnosis.

• To set up detailed protocols for each of the measures

• To elaborate registers to control all the results and all the documentation created during the execution of the autocontrol plan.

TRAINING AND ASSESSMENT

One of Sahicasa's strengths is training and assessment, not only are we committed to carry out the actions for which we have been contracted, but we also question customers about the comprehensive compliance with regulations that an external company does not normally do, to ensure that the requirements are complied with and we also study whether the protocols for action established by a customer are the most suitable ones or whether they could be improved.

SAHICASA obtains this service through the proximity policy between our technicians and the Technical Management and those responsible for each facility.

Training is basic in the environmental area as the technicians have to be extremely qualified due to the complex nature and variability of the tasks they carry out.

For years, SAHICASA has been participating as a speaker at the official courses on legionella, meaning that we can always help customers with compulsory training or recommend them how to choose due to the excessive offer that there is in this area.

SAHICASA has also decided to offer customised courses as an improvement to the training service it provides, without affecting official courses given, adapting them to the type of customer to avoid having to attend a 25-hour course in which very general things are spoken about or going into technical details that some people do not need in order to carry out their habitual work.

This individualised training can be given in face-to-face courses, but we also have an Online Platform available for our customers where students can do the course without having to travel, from a computer, on different days or doing a few hours at a time, to best suit each user's available time.