Water and Effluent

Water and Effluent safety

Water and effluent are significant hazards on farms. On average, five children drown on Australian farms each year. Most are under the age of five and a third are visitors.

Drownings of adults also occur especially when they are working with machinery near dams, ponds and channels or when maintaining infrastructure that is under or above water.

Water use and effluent infrastructure can also present risks other than drowning such as:

Slips, trips and falls especially in yards and on edges of ponds and channels
Entanglement & manual handling injuries associated with pumps and agitators
Falls from heights on travelling irrigators
Physical injury from pressure washers & flexible hydrants when cleaning
Water contact with exposed power in the dairy or overhead power by irrigators
Contact with harmful gases produced by effluent

As an employer or person conducting a business on the farm, you have a legal responsibility to manage all the risks to health and safety associated with water and effluent.