Market announcement

Title

AS Tallinna Vesi's operational performance 2013

Message

Similarly to previous years, the year 2013 can be characterised by a consistent
improvement of operational and quality indicators as best-ever water quality.
Above all, it gives security to all consumers that they are provided with a
high-quality drinking water, stable water supply and service of wastewater
discharge. In addition to the quality of service, we also concentrate on being
a good partner for our customers. In 2013, the customers’ feedback on our work
has been very positive and we continue making efforts so that our customer
service would constantly keep improving. As our activities have a considerable
effect both on the surrounding natural environment and wellbeing of the local
community, we deem very important to pay attention to environmental and
community related activities. 

Operational indicators for 2013

Indicator                                                          2012     2013
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Drinking water                                                                  
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Compliance of water quality at the customers tap                99,55 %  99,70 %
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Water loss in the water distribution network                     15,86%  16,98 %
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Average duration of water interruptions per property            3,42 h   3,46 h 
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Wastewater                                                                      
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- 
Number of sewer blockages                                           715      762
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Number of sewer bursts                                              120      139
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Number of customer contacts regarding floodings, blockages and     1239     1405
 storm water                                                                    
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Wastewater treatment compliance with environmental standards      100 %    100 %
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Customer Service                                                                
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- 
Number of written complaints                                        152      118
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Number of customer contacts regarding water quality                 239      252
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Number of customer contacts regarding water pressure                736      576
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Responding written customer contacts within at least 2 work      98,5 %   99,1 %
 days                                                                           
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Number of failed promises                                            19      117
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Notification of unplanned water interruptions at least 1 h         89 %   96,9 %
 before the interruption                                                        
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Tap water is drinking water

Tap water in the capital is of high quality and it is safe to drink it. As for
water quality, 2013 was even better than previous years, with 99.70% of all the
water samples were in compliance with the requirements, which is the highest
level achieved in the company’s history. This means that from 2965 water
samples taken from the consumers’ taps last year we found only 9
non-compliances. Water quality is mostly influenced by iron and turbidity which
is caused by the condition of water pipelines. We reacted immediately to all
non-compliances. 

Starting from 2013, the residents of Maardu are also being provided with
drinking water from lake Ülemiste. 99.31% of water samples taken in Maardu in
2013 were in compliance with the requirements. Prior to the connection with
Tallinn water supply network, Maardu residents’ drinking water complied with
quality requirements only to the extent of 33%. 

A reliable service

It is important to the residents that a well-functioning service be provided to
them twenty-four hours. Therefore we are concentrating on a continuous
improvement of the reliability of our service. 

2013 saw a slight increase in the number of customer contacts as compared with
2012. It mainly happened due to an active construction activity in Nõmme, the
process of connection of the residents of Muuga and Maardu and EU law change
related with transfer to the e-invoice standing order service which has caused
confusion among the customers to some extent. The construction activity has
also brought about the increase of breaches of Our Promises – this is a system
unique to our company according to which we pay compensation to the customer if
we are not able to comply with our internal service standards. However, in 2013
the number of complaints has reduced to 118 compared to 152 in 2012. It
indicates that regardless of short-term problems which, first and foremost,
have been caused by external factors, the customers can be sure that the
service functions well. 

Cleaner environment

Our focus continues to be on reducing the risks related to potential floodings
and pollution as well as any unpleasant impact on customers. In 2013,
preventive jet washing resulted in a decrease of sewer blockages by 20%
compared to the average of the last four years. It means that if there were 915
blockages on average in the past years, there were 762 blockages in 2013. 

The level of leakages is also decreasing year-on-year due to preventive
actions. This saves approximately 13 000 m3 of treated drinking water a day
compared to the time 10 years ago. 

Customer is our partner

Our communication with customers concentrates on preventive activities in order
to enable us to react on problems faster and avoid more serious issues to
occur. We ask for a monthly feedback from our customers based on which we can
immediately deal with the subjects where we do not meet customers’
expectations. In 2013 exceeded our expectations regarding customers’ feedback.
Compared to 2012 performance of 3,32, our customers gave us 3,42 points on a
4-points scale in 2013. Continuously high satisfaction with our services is
also being demonstrated by the results of customer satisfaction survey, carried
out by TNS EMOR, being significantly higher than the average of European
utility companies. 

Our key aim is to make sure that the customers know, when their questions get
resolved. In order to reduce any inconveniences caused by interruptions to
water supply, we notified our customers of interruptions in advance in 96,9% of
cases in 2013. 

We constantly strive for new solutions to make it easier for the customers to
communicate with us. Our customers use more and more the e-channels, which
demonstrates that it is convenient for them to use those. 

For the benefit of community

We are the biggest water company in Estonia and our performance casts an impact
on almost one third of the Estonian population. We deem contributing to our
surrounding environment and to the welfare of the local community extremely
important. To serve this purpose, we consistently act in the name of promoting
environmental awareness among both adults and children. In 2013, we also
carried out the campaign “Tap water is drinking water” to increase the
awareness of the population as well as to give people courage and confidence to
drink tap water. Approximately 3000 people, who were interested in the
treatment processes of the water treatment plant and wastewater treatment
plant, visited the plants last year. We continued frequent cooperation with
educational institutions to contribute to the awareness of youth who would take
care of their environment. 




         Mariliis Mia Topp
         Head of Communications
         AS Tallinna Vesi
         Tel: (+372) 62 62 275
         [email protected]