Hygiene and safety rules for swimming locations

Do you run a swimming pool or other bathing water basin accessible to the public? For example, a public pool or a pool in a hotel, sauna, or campsite? Then you must comply with rules for hygiene, safety, water quality, and air quality.

In exceptional cases, such as during a renovation, you can ask your province if you may deviate from the rules under certain conditions. This is called a situation-specific regulation (maatwerkvoorschrift). You apply for this via the Environment and Planning Portal (Omgevingsloket, in Dutch).

Swimming in open water

Do you operate an open water swimming location, such as a recreational lake? Then you must follow the rules for open water swimming locations. These are different from the rules for swimming pools and bathing water basins.

The province designates official swimming locations in surface water. During bathing season, from 1 May to 1 October, official swimming locations are checked for water quality at least once a month. Outside bathing season, the water quality is not checked.

The Dutch-language website Zwemwater.nl has more information about the water quality of official swimming locations.

What do you need to do?

For swimming pools and bathing water basins, you must, among other things:

• assess risks for visitors in a risk analysis
• draw up a management plan
• check water and air quality, and have other checks carried out
• record results and measures in a logbook
• give measurement data to the province
• report legionella in swimming and bathing water if there is too much legionella
• prevent legionella in tap water, for example in showers

Health and safety of visitors

To protect the health and safety of visitors, you must follow rules on, for example:

• first aid equipment
• water depth
• materials used
• supervision of visitors
• the risk of drowning, accidents, or injuries

Mandatory risk analysis and management plan

You must conduct a risk analysis for visitors who swim or bathe. 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, water inlets and outlets, lockers, and changing rooms

You use the risk analysis to draw up a management plan. This plan 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. You must also record which measures you take to prevent this from happening again.

Hygiene rules for water and air

Hygiene rules apply to swimming pools (in Dutch). These rules cover, among other things:

• the quality of the swimming and bathing water
• areas where visitors walk barefoot
• maintenance of air and water filters

The water you use to fill your pool must be of drinking water quality (in Dutch). You must also test and measure the water and air in and around your pool for various substances and values, such as chlorine, acidity, and ozone.

Water checks

Which checks are needed depends on the type of bathing water basin. Do you have a pool with disinfected water? Then you must test the pool twice a day for, among other things, chlorine, acidity, and transparency (in Dutch). You set down the place and time of the measurements in your management plan.

You record the results and any measures in the logbook. You must keep this logbook for at least 2 years.

You must also have each pool checked regularly by an accredited laboratory (in Dutch). This is a laboratory that has been officially approved. 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, if water mist is formed

Every month, on or before the 15th, you must inform the province about the measurements in the previous month. You state which laboratory carried out the measurements, on which days, where and at what time, and what the results were. You do this via the Environment and Planning Portal (Omgevingsloket, in Dutch).

Reporting legionella in swimming and bathing water

Does a water check show that there are 100 colony-forming units of legionella per litre (cfu/l) or more in the swimming or bathing water? Then you must immediately report this to the province. You do this via the Environment and Planning Portal (Omgevingsloket, in Dutch).

Preventing legionella in tap water

Does your swimming pool have showers or other taps where water can form mist? Then you must also take measures to prevent legionella in tap water.

You must have a legionella risk analysis carried out. If this shows that there are risks, you must have a legionella management plan drawn up and carried out.

Safe & Clean Quality Mark

With the Safe & Clean Quality Mark (Keurmerk Veilig & Schoon, in Dutch), you prove that your swimming pool meets legal requirements and sector quality standards for hygiene, water quality, and safety. You can apply for the Safe & Clean Quality Mark from the Swimming Pool Hallmark Foundation (Stichting Zwembadkeur, in Dutch).