Market announcement

Title

AS Tallinna Vesi's operational performance in the nine months of 2015

Message

Our first priority is to provide our customers with high-quality drinking
water, reliable water supply and wastewater discharge services. Similar to
previous years, the nine months of 2015 can be characterised with excellent
quality levels of our services. We will continue to focus on maintaining and
improving all our key performance indicators so our consumers can rely on the
service they receive. The nine months of the year confirm the quality of
drinking water in Tallinn that has been excellent already for years, thus, we
keep encouraging people to prefer tap water for drinking water. Low leakage
level reducing on a quarterly basis is another positive sign of the Company’s
excellent performance. 

We continue to commit to the improvement of customer service and focus on
activities that will increase the environmental awareness of the community. We
also carry out initiatives that have a significant long-term positive effect on
our environment. One of such initiatives was a recently completed extensive
project of building fish passes at three dams of the reservoirs in Ülemiste
catchment area delivered in cooperation with the Environmental Investments
Centre. 


Operational indicators for the nine months of 2015

Indicator                                                 2014 9      2015 9    
                                                           months      months   
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Drinking water                                                                  
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- 
Compliance of water quality at the customers’ tap             99.77%      99.86%
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Water loss in the water distribution network                  16.33%      14.58%
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Average duration of water interruptions per property in   2.96 h      3.20 h    
 hours                                                                          
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Wastewater                                                                      
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- 
Number of sewer blockages                                        582         583
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Number of sewer bursts                                            95          91
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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                                      51          57
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Number of customer contacts regarding water quality              129          81
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Number of customer contacts regarding water pressure             273         226
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Number of customer contacts regarding blockages and              788         855
 discharge of storm water                                                       
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Responding written customer contacts within at least 2        98.90%       99.0%
 work days                                                                      
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Number of failed promises                                         42           9
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Notification of unplanned water interruptions at least 1      96.77%       98.9%
 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 legal requirements 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. Water quality
is most characterised by the compliance with the legislative acts. Similar to
previous periods, nine months of 2015 showed once again a very good performance
with regard to water quality. In the nine months, we took a total of 2 209
water samples from the consumers’ taps and only 3 of those exceeded the limit
values. We immediately carried out maintenance works on the water network on
the relevant streets, following which new samples were taken that were fully
compliant. Altogether, we carried out 18,550 water analyses. 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 nine months of 2015, we gave advance
notifications to our customers in 98.9% of cases, which is slightly higher than
96.77% 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 nine months of 2015, the customer contacts regarding water quality
have reduced by 37% and regarding water pressure by 17% compared to the same
period in 2014. Customer complaints give us the idea of the more problematic
issues that need our immediate attention. In nine months of 2015, the number of
customer contacts has reduced well by 79% year-on-year. Compared to the nine
months of 2014, when dissatisfaction was expressed in 42 cases, it happened
only in 9 cases in 2015. 

Cleaner environment

We provide wastewater discharge service to nearly one third of the Estonia’s
population. The effective work of the wastewater treatment plant in Paljassaare
contributes to keeping the purity of water in the Baltic Sea and Gulf of
Finland and ensures the compliance with environmental 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 nine months of 2015, the
number of blockages remained at the level of 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. Each quarter in 2015, the
level of leakages has shown the lowest ever result the company has achieved. As
at the end of nine months we can again say that we have achieved the lowest
ever leakage rate. While in the same period in 2014 the leakage level was
16.33%, this year it had dropped by almost 11% to 14.58%. This saves
approximately over 13,000 m3 of treated drinking water a day compared to the
time 10 years ago. 

Sustainable development

As our activities impact nearly one third of Estonia’s population, initiatives
with a significant long-term positive effect on both our environment and
community are extremely important for us. One of such initiatives was a
recently completed extensive project of building fish passes at three dams of
the reservoirs in Ülemiste catchment area delivered in cooperation with the
Environmental Investments Centre. Tallinn’s main source of drinking water –
Lake Ülemiste – is surrounded by a large water catchment system covering the
total area of ca 1 800 km2 to secure additional raw water storage for the lake.
In order to improve the biological diversity and natural environment of the
rivers in the catchment area and through that also the conditions of the entire
river system, fish passes were built on the Sae, Vaskjala and Kaunissaare dams.
The total cost of the project was over 350,000 euros and the project of
Vaskjala and Sae fish passes was co-financed by the Environmental Investments
Centre in the amount of 180,000 euros. 

Our aspiration is to raise awareness and promote environmental lifestyle among
the population. We consistently work closely with our communities, both
children and adults who use our services, on a range of activities, to promote
environmental awareness. We encourage people to drink tap water through various
campaigns and have involved several restaurants, partners and the public
therein. In the end of August, we had 400 people visiting the open door days at
Ülemiste Water Treatment Plant. This demonstrates that people are interested in
how our drinking water, which is of vital importance for us all, is produced
and how it gets to their tap. 


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