AS Tallinna Vesi achieved excellent operational results in the first six months of 2020, despite the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. We are pleased to see continued high performance, linked to the quality of drinking water, treated effluent and customer service. To limit the potential impact of the Coronavirus, Tallinna Vesi made considerable changes to its day to day operations, to ensure the continued health and welfare of employees and an uninterrupted service to customers, including all associated quality standards and service metrics.
Continuous supply of high-quality drinking water
The quality of tap water was 100% compliant with the requirements in the second quarter as well as the first six months of 2020, which means that all water samples met the strict standards for drinking quality. A total of 1,539 water samples were taken during the first two quarters. This result demonstrates an excellent quality of water in our water network, retained by the consistently efficient management of our water treatment processes and proactive maintenance of the water network.
Also, the service reliability indicators of the Company remained excellent. The average water disruption time was 3 hours and 3 minutes and 94.6% of all interruptions to customers were less than 5 hours. These are great results, and a reflection of our continued efforts to manage the network as effectively as possible, in order to minimise the inconvenience and disruption caused to the citizens of Tallinn.
The level of leakages in our water network remained low during the first six months (13.9%), although being slightly higher than the same period last year, which was an all-time record.
Environmental wastewater service
In the first half of 2020, the final treated effluent at Paljassaare Wastewater Treatment Plant was fully compliant with all quality requirements. With the purpose of assessing the treatment efficiency and the quality of wastewater, we continuously monitor for pollutants, in both the incoming wastewater and final treated effluent. Wastewater laboratory analyses the samples taken from different stages of the wastewater treatment process, and the information received thereby allows us to further improve the treatment plant efficiency, and ensure the continued quality of final effluent.
In comparison with the first six months of 2019, the number of sewer blockages dropped by a quarter, and the number of sewer collapses was also reduced.
Tallinna Vesi continues with the reconstruction of the mechanical treatment stage at the wastewater treatment plant.
High service standards
Besides outstanding operational performance, the Company has continued to deliver high standards of service to it’s customers. We have set clear and challenging targets, and give promises to our customers, in terms of the speed of our response and problem-solving. No promises have been broken in 2020. The number of customer complaints was also significantly lower than in the same period last year (28 in 2020 compared to 81 in 2019).
We also think it is fundamental to provide our customers with important information, or respond to their questions as quickly as possible. Therefore, we measure the speed of our responses, and have set a target to respond to non-complex written requests within two working days. In 99.2% of all occasions, we managed to notify our customers at least an hour before a water interruption.
| OPERATIONAL INDICATORS FOR SIX MONTHS OF 2020 | |||||
| Indicator | Unit | 2020 6 months | 2019 6 months | 2020 Q2 | 2019 Q2 |
| Drinking water | |||||
| Compliance of water quality at the customers’ tap | % | 100.0% | 99.5% | 100.0% | 99.2% |
| Water loss in the water distribution network | % | 13.9% | 12.2% | 12.7% | 11.6% |
| Average duration of water interruptions per property in hours | h | 3.05 | 2.63 | 3.18 | 2.67 |
| Wastewater | |||||
| Number of sewer blockages | No | 227 | 302 | 103 | 143 |
| Number of sewer bursts | No | 41 | 59 | 14 | 30 |
| Wastewater treatment compliance with environmental standards | % | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Customer Service | |||||
| Number of complaints | No | 28 | 81 | 12 | 41 |
| Number of customer contacts regarding water quality | No | 164 | 172 | 101 | 145 |
| Number of customer contacts regarding water pressure | No | 149 | 154 | 87 | 100 |
| Number of customer contacts regarding blockages and discharge of storm water | No | 473 | 542 | 207 | 214 |
| Responding written customer contacts within at least 2 work days | % | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| Number of failed promises cases | No | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Notification of unplanned water interruptions at least 1 h before the interruption | % | 99.2% | 97.7% | 99.0% | 98.4% |
Eliis Randver
Head of Customer Relations and Communications
AS Tallinna Vesi
Tel: (+372) 62 62 275
Eliis.randver@tvesi.ee