COVID-19
The Covid-19 Outbreak Has Touched Almost Everybody On The Planet In Some Way. Wherever And Whenever We Can, We Are Actively Supporting Those Who Continue To Have Their Lives Changed Or Impacted By The Virus.
As a water bottling business, we have a recognized and important role to play in this crisis. As you would expect, the safety of our employees, customers, partners, consumers and products remains our highest priority. That’s why – since the start of the outbreak – we have implemented National best practice precautionary and hygiene measures at all our locations, be that even stricter sanitation protocols, social distancing, travel restrictions and remote meetings and working.
Stay Safe
We Continue to Serve You
With these precautions and all necessary government accreditation and approvals in place, our production continues as normal and those of our sales teams that need to do so remain working alongside our customers to support our local communities. Wherever possible, all other staff are following the guidelines set by government. We keep this under review depending on the local situation in each of our nationwide Locations. We thank all of our colleagues everywhere for the work they are doing in such demanding circumstances.
Together with Durrat Al Khaleej Company, we are also supporting our communities and customers as they continue to be impacted by the pandemic.
COVID-19 RESPONSE
General Information
Durrat AL Khaleej is actively monitoring the COVID-19 (the coronavirus) outbreak to ensure the safety and well-being of our associates and customers. To date, we have not encountered any disruption to manufacturing or distribution operations as a result of this outbreak.
IMPORTANT: The World Health Organization has stressed that COVID-19 has not been detected in public drinking water supplies and the risk is low due to the virus having a fragile outer membrane.
To ensure that our trained field service technicians are equipped to produce and deliver safe, high-quality drinking water and services, we follow stringent food quality and safety standards across our facilities and service routes every day for both Exchange and Refill services – including rigorous hygiene practices such as handwashing protocols, glove requirements with product contact surfaces, and illness protocol. To learn more about the Coronavirus,
Quality and Safety Protocols
To ensure that our associates are equipped to produce and deliver safe, high-quality water and services, we follow stringent food quality and safety standards across our facilities every day – including rigorous hygiene practices such as hand washing protocols, glove requirements with product contact surfaces, and illness protocol. Additionally, we are diligently monitoring and following guidance from the World Health Organization, and local and regional health agencies.
Facility and Associate Sanitation and Hygiene
We are reinforcing existing associate and facility sanitation practices and have mandated additional preventative measures:
- We are reinforcing frequent and thorough hand washing and respiratory etiquette. As part of this effort, we have purchased extra cleaning supplies, including sanitizer, to have on-hand at all facilities.
- Leaders should start every meeting with a message reinforcing the importance of frequent and effective hand washing and sanitizing techniques along with awareness of more frequent sanitation of common touch surfaces.
- We have implemented increased sanitation of hard work surfaces across all facilities, delivery trucks, forklifts and associate common areas – including the use of sanitizer wipes for common touchpoints such as time clocks, door handles, light switches, countertops, radios, lunchrooms, restrooms, vending machines, cooler handles and more – all in accordance with current, required documented training.
- We are adding “illness and hand washing” signage on facility visitor entrance, shipping/receiving entrance and production facility doors to advise associates, visitors or vendors who
- a) are feeling ill,
- b) have been in contact with anyone exhibiting symptoms, or
- c) Have traveled in areas outside of the country affected by the Coronavirus to not enter the facility as a precautionary measure.
Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs)
We maintain a stringent GMP program across our bottling plant and equipment service departments that requires associate hygiene, sanitation and safety. This includes wearing non-latex gloves for job functions that involve product or cooler contact surfaces, with documented training already required.
Associate Illness
Associates, visitors and vendors who exhibit symptoms or are ill are not permitted to be in the workplace and must avoid contact with other associates, equipment, or product surfaces.
The World Health Organization has stated that COVID-19 has not been detected in public drinking water supplies and the risk is low due to the virus having a fragile outer membrane.
Our pre-filled Exchange water is processed through a well-designed, multibarrier disinfection process including ultraviolet disinfection and ozonation, leaving a residual disinfectant in the bottle when capped and produced in a sealed system. The products we produce are of the highest quality in the industry due to the multi-barrier systems we have in place, with stringent checks and balances. The water quality is further treated and disinfected using filtration, reverse osmosis (RO) and ultraviolet disinfection (UV) steps.
Bottled drinking water products manufactured for Durrat Al Khaleej do not contain perishable components; therefore bottled water does not have a shelf life. As long as the bottled water is stored in a cool environment, away from solvents and chemicals, it is consumable for an unlimited time.
Durrat Al Khaleej refill water is sampled regularly as per jurisdictional public health, quality and safety regulations.
Durrat Al Khaleej’s trained service technicians visit the refill systems routinely. All refill system parameters are checked and the dispensers are cleaned and sanitized, inside and outside, with special attention given to the machine’s external surfaces.