Water Hygiene Top tips to keep your water systems running safely

The hot and cold water systems in your home can provide an environment where bacteria can grow. This has the potential to become a danger to your health.

To help minimise any impact we would like to encourage you to take these basic steps to maintain good water hygiene:

• Do not change the settings on your boiler or hot water system.
• Contact LHP if:
  • you run your cold water taps and the water is taking longer to get cold than it usually does in your home
  • you run your hot water taps and the water is taking longer to get hot than it usually does in your home, or it is not as hot as it usually is
  • Ensure all taps and the shower in your home are used regularly (at least once a week)
  • Please clean and descale all taps at least once every three months
  • Please clean, descale and disinfect your shower head at least once every three months. Make sure that it is clean and fully rinsed before using it again
  • If you use a garden hose or water butt, remember to flush these out too so any stagnant water is removed
  • If you go away on holiday, when you get home, run all of the taps and shower in your home for at least 3 minutes, and keep away from the water while it is running. If you find any issues with the water (temperature and/or discolouration) please contact LHP straight away

LHP has a responsibility to take precautions to maintain water hygiene in the hot or cold water system of your home, but you as tenants and residents also have an important part to play in taking these simple and practical precautions. If you need to report an issue, you can contact us on 0345 604 1472.

You can also download this leaflet, which gives you all the information on water hygiene in one handy document.