Market announcement

Title

AS Tallinna Vesi's operational performance in the first half-year of 2014

Message

The first half of 2015 can be characterised with stability in the quality of
our services. Above all, this provides confidence to all consumers that they
are provided with a high-quality drinking water, stable water supply and
wastewater discharging service. In addition to the quality of service, we also
concentrate on being a good partner for our customers. Feedback from the
customers has become more and more positive, however, we aim to continue making
efforts to meet and exceed the customers’ expectations. 

Operational indicators for the first half of 2015

Indicator                                                 2014 6      2015 6    
                                                           months      months   
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Drinking water                                                                  
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- 
Compliance of water quality at the customers’ tap             99.86%      99.93%
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Water loss in the water distribution network                  16.38%      13.95%
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Average duration of water interruptions per property in         2.80        3.17
 hours                                                                          
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Wastewater                                                                      
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- 
Number of sewer blockages                                        434         428
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Number of sewer bursts                                            72          68
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Wastewater treatment compliance with environmental              100%        100%
 standards                                                                      
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Customer Service                                                                
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- 
Number of written complaints                                      32          37
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Number of customer contacts regarding water quality               65          38
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Number of customer contacts regarding water pressure             144         146
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Number of customer contacts regarding blockages and              529         601
 discharge of storm water                                                       
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Responding written customer contacts within at least 2         99.0%       98.7%
 work days                                                                      
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Number of failed promises                                         21           6
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Notification of unplanned water interruptions at least 1       97.4%       98.8%
 h before the interruption                                                      
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Tap water is drinking water

Quality of drinking water has a significant impact on public health and
wellbeing. Tap water quality in the capital city has been comparable to that of
any Western European state for several years now, and therefore we keep
encouraging people to drink tap water. Strict requirements established with the
legislative acts are set for the quality of drinking water and this quality is
monitored according to the drinking water monitoring programs approved by the
Health Board. It is the compliance with the legislative acts that characterizes
the water quality. The first half of the year showed once again a very good
performance with regard to water quality. In the first six months of 2015, we
took a total of 1473 water samples from the consumers’ taps and only 1 of those
was non-compliant. Altogether we carried out 6872 analysis. In Maardu, water
quality was 100% compliant. 

A reliable service

It is important for the residents to have a high-quality 24/7 service
available. Therefore, we focus a lot on planning and optimizing our activities,
in order to prevent, if possible, or reduce the unpleasant impact potentially
caused by our services. We also deem very important that our customers know
when their questions would be resolved or when we are performing the works that
might impact their activities. We monitor the compliance with the promised
deadlines with proper diligence and inform our customers if we are not able to
fulfil these agreements. If we plan any repair works or interruptions to water
supply, we inform our customers of related interruptions in advance. On the
other hand, unplanned interruptions come unexpected and we need to take
immediate actions. Our consumers are also affected by unplanned interruptions,
thus, we have set ourselves a target to notify our customers at least one hour
before an unplanned interruptions. In the first half of 2015, we gave advance
notifications to our customers in 98.8% of cases, which is slightly higher than
97.4% in 2014. 

A reliable service also means that there are less inconveniencies for residents
caused by water interruptions and they have less reasons to contact us. The
number of customer contacts has been decreasing remarkably year-on-year, which
is a sign of stable improvements both in providing the service and the customer
service. In order for us to know whether our customers are happy with our
service and to be able to improve ourselves we ask for customer feedback on a
monthly basis. In the first six months of 2015 we received feedback from 105
customers and on a 4-point scale we achieved a score of 3.6, which is a very
good result. 

Cleaner environment

We provide wastewater discharge service to nearly one third of the Estonia’s
population. The wastewater treatment plant in Paljassaare is removing more and
more pollutants form wastewater each year in order to ensure the compliance
with environmental requirements and guarantee the purity of water in the Baltic
Sea and the Gulf of Finland. By using eco-friendly and modern technologies,
Paljassaare Wastewater Treatment Plant treats the wastewater collected from
Tallinn and its surrounding areas. In the first half of 2015, the treated
effluent was 100% compliant with all quality requirements. 

We continue to focus on possible risks of floodings and pollution incidents as
well as on reducing the inconveniencies we may cause to the customers. The
number of blockages characterizes the conditions of sewer network the best. The
sediments accumulating in the sewerage pipelines are the main causes of
blockages. In reducing the number of blockages, preventive actions, such as
flushing the sewer network, play an important role. In the first half of 2015,
the number of blockages remained at the same level than in the same period last
year. 

The level of leakages indicating water loss in the distribution network is also
decreasing year-on-year due to preventive actions. In the first half of 2015,
the level of leakages was the lowest ever the company has achieved. While in
the first half of 2014 the leakage level was 16.38%, this year it had dropped
by 14.8%. This saves approximately over 13,000 m3 of treated drinking water a
day compared to the time 10 years ago. 


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