When the heat was on at Swinfen Hall Prison, Source for Business stepped in and worked through the night to turn the situation around.

Swinfen Hall Prison, in Staffordshire, holds 624 young men serving between four years and life and is known for working with businesses, voluntary organisations, the Learning and Skills Council and education providers to reduce reoffending rates.

With unprecedented hot, dry weather the prison’s demand for water exceeded the available supply and their water storage tanks began to run low, risking water outages.

Worried about the potential for serious unrest amongst prisoners and the safety of both staff and prisoners, Governor Ian West asked water retailer Source for Business to intervene. The firm’s Key Account Manager, immediately understood the reason for his concern as her father worked as a prison Governor and she was determined to help improve storage levels to avoid any problems.

The Key Account Manager, began by contacting the water wholesaler, explaining the potential severity of the situation, and then worked through the night to co-ordinate activities, including liaison with both the wholesaler and bottled water providers.

Once the immediate risks were addressed she and her colleagues then worked to arrange for a leak detection contractor to examine the site to help understand the cause of the problem, as well as bringing in water contingency experts to make sure that a long-term plan was put in place to make sure that such a situation was never repeated.

This contingency plan includes installing unique pressure sustaining valves specially designed for the prison, as well as site based leakage detection and consumption monitoring so that any problems are alleviated in the future. Source for Business supported the installation of data loggers to allow prison staff to view their consumption levels in real time.

Prison Governor Ian West described the situation as ‘a perfect storm for a catastrophic incident to happen’.