Our Business

Our goals are to manage water resources to preserve their social, ecological and economic value and to meet our customers' expectations for water and related services.

These goals are reflected in the regulated companies' business plans for 2010-2015 and beyond, as well as in their 25 year Strategic Direction Statements and Water Resource Management Plans.

Our plans, as approved by OFWAT and the Environment Agency, tackle supply and demand imbalances using a twin track approach of increasing our water resources and encouraging careful water use. They include increased meter penetration to manage demand, reducing leakage and making better use of existing water resources by investing in infrastructure.

This latest measure improves our ability to transfer water across our supply areas to the places where it is needed most at any particular time.

Good customer service - central to our business

In 2009-10 Ofwat ranked Veolia Water East and Veolia Water Central in the top four companies (out of 21) for customer service and water supply. Veolia Water Southeast was ranked 17^th due to an inability to cope with an increase in written communications compared with previous years. It has since improved its processes and reports a considerable improvement in performance in 2010. In Wales, where Veolia is Welsh Water's billing and income partner, Dwr Cymru Customer Services contributed to Welsh Water's 15th place.

Veolia Water Outsourcing works in partnership with industry to provide sustainable, cost-effective water processing, recycling and wastewater management.

Treating water

All water that enters the public water supply must be disinfected. This is normally achieved through filtration and the use of chlorine or ultra violet light. The Veolia Water UK companies' approach to water quality is based on the precautionary principle of applying controls wherever assessments indicate that a risk may be present. Twenty per cent of the water Veolia Water Central puts into supply is now treated through membrane plant. Veolia Water Southeast has the highest proportion of membrane treatment capacity compared with other water companies.

Ultrafiltration and microfiltration membrane plants can reduce the quantities of chlorine required for disinfection, thereby reducing the environmental impact associated with the use of chlorine compounds. Another advantage is the significant reduction in water loss, chemical usage and solid waste produced in the treatment process. Membrane plants allow for washwater from the plant to be recycled to the head of the works instead of running to waste.

The need for ever more complex water treatment (such as ozonation, double stage filtration for pesticides etc, granular activated carbon adsorption, airstripping of volatile organic compounds, orthophosphate dosing for lead, ultrafiltration for cryptosporidium etc) inevitably results in using more energy per unit of water produced. This additional energy use has in turn to be minimised.

Leakage

In 2009-10, Veolia Water East and Veolia Water Southeast achieved leakage rates better than their targets; Veolia Water East has the lowest leakage level in England and Wales. The severe winter, the harshest in over 30 years, brought unusual stress to Veolia Water Central's network resulting in a trebled rate of burst pipes. Despite committing additional teams to detect and repair leaks the company fell just short of its annual leakage target, but met its three-year average target.

Managing for sustainable development

We manage our business to satisfy the needs of existing and future stakeholders. We do this by balancing the demand for water against the availability of water resources in the areas where we operate, while protecting water resources and the environment.

An important water resources measure is the security of supply index of each company, as reported to our regulator. This gives information on a water company's ability to supply customers in "dry" years without introducing restrictions.

To plan for these effects, our companies' water resources plans consider different climate scenarios, development patterns and demand conditions. We also work in partnership with other water companies to develop unified campaigns that are of benefit to our customers.