You may have seen signs or pipe markers labelled with Potable Water or Non-Potable Water in the past, and you may not know the difference between the two. Water, particularly non-potable water, can be a hazard in the workplace.
Potable water is water of a quality suitable for drinking, cooking and personal bathing. The standards that define potable water are described in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
Non-potable water is water that is not of drinking quality, but may still be used for many other purposes, depending on its quality.
Unless water is known to be of potable quality (e.g. from a drinking water supply system) it should be regarded as non-potable and used appropriately.
Some examples of non-potable water use in the workplace include:
- rainwater from tanks used for various workplace uses, e.g. cooling towers and car washing
- quarry water used for dust suppression and landscape irrigation
- swimming pool backwash water used for toilet flushing
- agricultural waste water used for crop irrigation
Incidents:
You should notify WHSQ of an incident that occurs in relation to the use of non-potable water in the workplace.
Responsibilities:
The person in control of the workplace must manage any risks from the use, handling, storage, and transport of the water at the workplace. Information within a product safety information sheet should contain, at a minimum, information on: health hazards, precautions for use, recommended uses, and water quality testing data.
For both workers and members of the public, the person in control of the workplace must:
- identify any hazards in the water, e.g. bacteria, viruses, chemicals, metals
- assess any risks to people from the proposed use of the water (e.g. are they likely to be saturated with the water)
- control any risks to people from exposure to the water (e.g. accidental drinking of the water, inhaling droplets, becoming drenched in the water)
- control any risk from storage of the water causing deterioration of the water
- evaluate the effectiveness of controls by supervising the use of control strategies and testing the water periodically.
