AS Tallinna Vesi’s operational performance in the 1st quarter of 2020

AS Tallinna Vesi achieved excellent operational results in the 1^st quarter of 2020, despite the impact of the Covid-19 crisis globally. We are pleased to see consistently high performance, linked to the quality of drinking water, treated effluent and customer service. To limit the potential impact of the Coronavirus, Tallinna Vesi has 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 1^st quarter of 2020, which means that all water samples met the strict standards for drinking quality. A total of 825 water samples were taken during the 1^st quarter. 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. In advance of Corona restriction being lifted by the Estonian government, we are urging applicable customers, to thoroughly flush and rinse their private pipes when reopening businesses, and in particular schools, to ensure fresh and clean drinking water at the tap.

Also, the service reliability indicators of the Company remained excellent. The average water disruption time was 2 hours and 52 minutes and 96% 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 remains low (14.9%), although being slightly higher than the same period last year, which was an all time record.

Environmental wastewater service

In the 1^st quarter of 2020, the final treated effluent at Paljassaare Wastewater Treatment Plant was 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 continued quality of final effluent.

In comparison with the same period in 2019, the number of sewer blockages dropped by almost a quarter, and the number of sewer collapses was broadly at the same level.

In the 1^st quarter of 2020, we reconstructed a large collector at Kadaka Blvd, which directs  wastewater from Saku, Saue, Laagri and approximately half of the properties in Nõmme City District, to the wastewater treatment plant at Paljassaare. The reconstruction works were urgently required in order to ensure continued and uninterrupted service. This was a significant project, and was achieved with the longest over ground pumping line, ever to have been constructed in the Baltic States.

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.

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 99.4% of all occasions, we managed to notify our customers at least an hour before a water interruption.

In order to further improve customer satisfaction, we continue to develop our customer interaction channels, and look for ways to make the processes quicker and more convenient. We introduced a new self-service environment to our customers at the end of last year, which has brought along new users and contributed to an increase in the number of customers who prefer to report the water meter readings via self-service environment, instead of phone or e-mail.

Eliis Randver

Head of Customer Relations and Communication

Tallinna Vesi

(+372) 626 2275