Hygiene and safety at swimming locations

Rules for health and safety of visitors

To ensure the safety of visitors, you must follow the rules on, for example:

• first aid equipment
• signs showing the depth of the water
• materials used
• supervision
• preventing accidents

Mandatory risk analysis and management plan

You must conduct a risk analysis for visitors when swimming or bathing. This risk analysis covers:

• the risk of drowning
• health risks due to water quality and indoor air quality
• the risk of accidents or injuries caused by technical installations and facilities such as slides, lockers, and changing rooms.

Based on this risk analysis, you must draw up a management plan. This sets out the measures you take to reduce the risks. You must also keep a logbook of how you implement the management plan. In it, you should record any accidents. And what measures you have taken to prevent such an accident from happening again.

Transitional period for risk analysis

Do you own a swimming pool that was open before the Environment and Planning Act came into force on 1 January 2024? If so, you have until 1 January 2026 at the latest to prepare a new risk analysis. Until then, your current risk analysis will continue to apply under the Swimming Facilities Hygiene and Safety Decree.

Hygiene regulations for water and air

There are hygiene regulations (in Dutch) covering among other things:

• quality of the swimming and bathing water
• areas where visitors walk with bare feet
• maintenance of air and water filters

The water in your pool should be of drinking water quality. You must also test and measure the water and air in and around your pool for various substances, such as chlorine and ozone.

Water checks

You should test each pool twice a day for chlorine, acidity, and transparency (in Dutch). You set down the place and time of measurements in your management plan and record them in a logbook. You must keep the logbook with results and any measures taken for at least 2 years.

Each bath should also be checked regularly for, for instance, turbidity, bromate, and legionella. You should have these checks done by an accredited laboratory (in Dutch). For example, you have the following checks carried out:

• every month for, among other things, turbidity and acidity of the bathing water
• every 3 months for bromate in the bathing water and ozone in the air, among other things
• every 6 months for legionella in the formation of water mist

Every month on or before the 15th, you inform the province of these measurements. Among other things, you let them know which laboratory measured what and on which days. And what the results of the measurements were. You do this via the online service counter Omgevingsloket (in Dutch).

Reporting legionella

To prevent legionella, swimming pool owners must have a mandatory risk analysis carried out. Does the water check reveal that the water contains more legionella bacteria than 100 colony-forming units per litre (cfu/l)? Then you must immediately report this to the province. You do this via the Omgevingsloket.

Safe & Clean Quality Mark

The Swimming Pool Hallmark Foundation (Stichting Zwembadkeur) issues the Safe & Clean Quality Mark (Keurmerk Veilig & Schoon, in Dutch). With this quality mark, you prove that your swimming pool meets the hygiene and safety regulations and quality requirements.

Online application procedure via Message Box

In the province of Noord-Brabant, you can also use Message Box to apply digitally for a temporary exemption from the hygiene and safety regulations for bathing establishments. This also applies to information on the prevention of legionella in bathing establishments. Message Box is a secure email system that enables you as an entrepreneur to exchange digital messages with Dutch government agencies.