Almost every facility stores water. It feeds taps, washrooms, kitchens and in many buildings the fire system as well. The tank is usually on the roof, it was cleaned when the building opened, and nobody has lifted the lid since.
What happens in a tank left alone
- Sediment builds a layer on the floor that holds everything arriving with the supply, and the draw-off point is usually close to it.
- Light through a translucent tank or an ill-fitting lid grows algae, which changes taste and odour and feeds everything else.
- A missing or torn insect screen on the vent or overflow lets in insects, dust and occasionally birds and rodents. The overflow is the most common way in.
- Warmth on an unshaded roof holds the water in the range where organisms multiply fastest, which in this climate is most of the year.
- Stagnation in an oversized tank, where water sits for days before it is used at all.
Why fire storage is the quiet one
A dedicated fire tank is worse, because the water is never drawn. It sits for years by design. Sediment accumulates, and the first time it moves is when the pump starts under emergency demand and pulls everything off the floor straight into the system.
What a sensible regime looks like
Open and inspect the tank internally on a schedule and record what you find. Clean and disinfect when the condition calls for it, not on a date in a calendar. Confirm every lid seals, every vent and overflow is screened, and the tank is shaded or insulated. Where water quality matters, sample and test rather than judging by eye.
The whole thing takes an hour, and the cost of not doing it lands as illness among staff or as a fire system that delivers sediment to a sprinkler head at the one moment it matters.
When Was Your Water Storage Last Opened and Inspected?
We assess facilities against the applicable standards - water storage, fire systems, electrical and LPG - and report what to fix first, ranked by severity.
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