Certificate holders are allowed to use the Kiwa Water Mark for and on their products that comply with the requirements in the related Kiwa Evaluation Guidelines.
These Evaluation Guidelines include all requirements the market and the government establish for products that come in contact with drinking water: private, functional requirements as well as public, hygienic requirements. The Kiwa Water Mark is therefore the efficient tool for sale and use of these products for the Dutch market: producers and suppliers only have to deal with one set of requirements and product users do not have to look any further.
Steps to obtain a certificate with the Kiwa Water Mark are:
1. Fill in an application form and send it to Kiwa (application form is located on the right side);
2. Kiwa sends a quotation according to the requirements in the guideline,
which is at the same time a concept-agreement;
3. After mutual signing of the quotation, the agreement is definitive.
4. The initial audit can start;
5. After positive results of the initial audit, the certificate will be issued;
6. The certificate is valid indefinitely;
7. A part of the agreement is periodic audits.
Important aspects of the initial audit (step 4) include:
a.Testing with regard to the product and/or performance requirements.
Testing, often carried out in our own laboratories, demonstrates that the product meets the certification requirements for functional and hygienic aspects, such as durability, dimensions, composition of materials, etc.;
b. Assessment of the production process, quality system and internal quality control (IQC) scheme.
To ascertain that the producer is continually able to manufacture products that meet the certification requirements.
The periodic audits (step 7) are intended for the maintenance of the certificate and certification scheme. They aim at the maintenance of the management system and production proces, in order to maintain confidence that the producer is still able to manufacture products that meet the certification requirements. The periodic audits include functional and hygienic tests of the certified products. The audit frequency varies from product group to product group: in general, 2 to 4 times per year.
Conditions for the certification process are stated in the Kiwa Regulations for Product Certification and the General Terms and Conditions of Kiwa for the performance of orders.