Key Challenges
2006 - 2010: Scottish Water's second regulatory period
The Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland has set Scottish Water some challenging targets for the next four years. Scottish Water must:
- Improve customer service by around 40%.
- Ensure it becomes an enabler of development by tackling constraints in communities around Scotland.
- Deliver the second largest investment programme in the UK between now and 2010 as we work to further improve the infrastructure
Key Achievements 2002 - 2006
2002 - 2006: Scottish Water's first regulatory period
After formation in 2002, Scottish Water was challenged to reverse years of neglect in the water industry in Scotland, to meet new stringent European Union directives to improve drinking water quality and protect the environment, and achieve tough new efficiency targets.
Much has been achieved towards these targets, and improvements have been delivered with around 2,000 fewer people employed in the water industry compared to 2002.
Finances
Scottish Water succeeded in beating efficiency targets set by its regulator, the Water Industry Commission, by running the business for over 40% less in 2006 than in 2002. Significant progress was also made in renewing the water infrastucture in Scotland, although further work is planned in the current regulatory period to bring the network up to a standard that meets our customer's expectations.
Customers
Customer service standards and customer satisfaction have improved. Drinking water quality has got better every year. Scotland’s beaches and rivers are cleaner. The new regulatory period (2006-2010) will see further efforts to improve in all these areas.
Capital Investment Programme
More than 2,000 projects have been completed across the country to upgrade the infrastructure. Average household charges in Scotland are now lower than those paid by customers of the private companies in England and Wales.
Key Facts
The following facts give some idea of the scale and complexity involved in providing clean, safe drinking water and disposing of waste water from homes and businesses across Scotland, 365 days per year.
Assets
Thousands of assets are operated and maintained - over 46,000 kilometres of water pipes, 48,000 kilometres of sewer pipes, 1807 waste water treatment works (including 1274 septic tanks) and 368 water treatment works plus pumping stations, sludge treatment centres, reservoirs.
Customers
Scottish Water has around 5 million customers in 2.2 million households. Scottish Water acts as the wholesaler of water and waste water services to the Licensed Provider, Scottish Water Business Stream and will be responsible for supplying all Licensed Providers in Scotland when the market is opened in April 2008.
Water Quality
Over 800 water samples are taken every day from a combination of customer taps, water treatment works and service reservoirs. Between January to December 2003 over 306,000 regulatory tests were carried out to ensure water quality is maintained to rigorous drinking water quality standards.
Volumes
2.5 billion litres of water is provided every day and nearly 1 billion litres of waste water is taken away and treated before being returned to the rivers and seas.
Coastline
Scottish Water is the sole provider of water and waste water services to an area of 78,000 square kilometres (over 30,000 square miles), a third of the area of Britain. And Scotland has a longer coastline - almost 10,000 kilometres (over 6,200 miles) - with a small and relatively dispersed population which requires a large number of small water and waste water treatment works.
Ranking and Turnover
Scottish Water is the fourth largest water and waste water services provider in the UK and at £1 billion it is in Scotland’s list of top 20 businesses by turnover.
Head Office and Operations
Scottish Water’s head office is in Dunfermline with principal offices in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. It employs just under 3,700 people across Scotland.
