It has been a challenging year for the water industry with rising prices and extreme weather events. Against this backdrop, we have worked hard to deliver high quality water and sewerage services to our 1.5 million customers.
Value to our customers
Our leadership in operational performance, cost efficiency and customer service was highlighted in the National Water Commission’s benchmarking report for 2009-10. It showed our operating costs as the lowest in Victoria for the past five years.
Holistic approach to water management
We ramped up our recycled water efforts and have connected a record 6,469 households to recycled water infrastructure at dual-pipe residential estates. We continued to lead an Integrated Water Management Strategy for Melbourne’s south east with our project partners.
Acknowledged for our innovation
South East Water’s Fire Service program identified almost 35 million litres of water savings during the year and won a national savewater! award for significantly reducing the amount of drinking water used to test fire sprinkler systems. We involved our community and stakeholders in our key decision making, with our approach winning Best Public Participation Policy Framework at the IAP2 Australasian awards.
Financial performance
In 2010-11, South East Water recorded an operating profit of $95.4 million. We took care to control our operating costs through ongoing productivity and efficiency gains.
Looking to the future
The demands on our business are growing and our customers are expecting more from us. In the face of rising prices we are determined to provide true customer value through quality services and ongoing operational and cost efficiencies.
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the commitment and effort of our entire workforce in delivering first class water and sewerage services across Melbourne’s south east.
We hope you find our performance report for 2010-11 a useful and interesting resource. We welcome your views on this new online approach and encourage you to provide feedback by emailing us at performance2011@sewl.com.au
Douglas Shirrefs Kevin Hutchings
Chairman Managing Director