Annual Report 2011 - Watercare

Watercare Services Limited
2011 ANNUAL REPORT
Earlier negotiations between Watercare,
the Kelliher Charitable Trust, which owns the
island, and local iwi resulted in an agreement
to develop Puketutu Island as a public open
space. The island’s freehold title will transfer
to new trustees and Watercare will lease the
island. Through this process it is proposed
that Auckland Council takes up a renewable
lease to guarantee that Puketutu Island
remains available to the people of Auckland
in perpetuity, with areas opened for public
access progressively.
Meter Reader Vernon Cassidy
of DataCol reads between
300 and 400 water meters
each day.
In addition to creating a magnificent new
public space for the people of Auckland, this
project allows us to rehabilitate the quarry
with biosolids. This is a cost-effective strategy
for the management of Auckland’s biosolids
Chief Executive’s report
PAGE 12
over a 30-year period and dramatically
reduces truck movements through the wider
Mangere area.
Continued community support
On 1 November 2010, a new model of local
government was established in Auckland.
Aucklanders gained a new mayor, new
council and 21 local boards to enable local
representation and decision-making on behalf
of local communities. Auckland Council is our
shareholder and we work co-operatively with
the council, its elected members and staff, in
all areas of our business.
I am especially pleased with the quality
of our relationships with Auckland’s local
boards. The boards reflect the diversity and
wide-ranging interests of the region. Practical
issues such as pipe bursts, overflows and
water quality complaints raised through our
customer contact centre have been escalated
by local board members in a number of cases
and we now have an ongoing programme of
local board engagement. I am committed to
ensuring that, where possible, local boards
are the first to know of network improvements
and other work with the potential to impact
local communities.
We are also keen to engage with them in our
milestone events and we were pleased that
Waitakere Ranges local board chair Denise
Yates and local board member Judy Lawley
were able to join Mayor Len Brown and
several Watercare staff and board members
at an event in December 2010 to celebrate
the 100th anniversary of the Waitakere Dam.
Performance improvement
During the 17-plus years I have been
associated with Watercare, I have been
especially proud of the culture of health and
safety that has been developed. Industryleading
practices have become part of the
company’s standard operating procedures –
quite simply ‘the way we do things’ – and, by
late May 2011, we had recorded an 18-month
period without a single lost-time injury. It
was therefore especially shocking on 4 June
2011 when a serious accident occurred at
an Auckland construction site, causing the
death of one Watercare employee and injuring
several other staff members and contractors.
The Onehunga incident is described in more
detail on page 14 and, at the time of writing,
we are assisting the Department of Labour
with their inquiries as well as conducting our
own internal review. Without pre-empting
these processes, I can say that we are
committed to learning all the lessons we can
from the Onehunga incident. We must clearly
understand the cause or causes of the tragic
accident and ensure this never happens again.
The safety of our people, and that of the
general public, is paramount.
The spirit of continual improvement which
underpins our commitment to health and
safety is evident across other areas of
our business. We have maintained and
expanded our long-running Project Improve
programme, where emerging leaders in the
organisation demonstrate initiatives they
have devised to save time, reduce cost or
improve service levels. Among the initiatives
brought forward under this project this year
have been an upgrade of our control systems
and knowledge management – effectively
enabling the entire water and wastewater
networks to be operated remotely, and
reducing reliance on our 24/7 Newmarket
control room – and a programme to swiftly
address performance shortfalls in some of our
newly inherited non-metropolitan plants.
During the year, we also undertook two
major systems upgrades. Hansen was
selected as our retail billing system and
SAP our enterprise asset-management
solution. SAP now supports finance and
management accounting, capital expenditure,
operating expenditure, project management,
purchasing and stores, wholesale asset
maintenance and operations. As a result,
we have more tightly integrated internal
processes and are better able to capture data
and track and report performance.
My own association with Watercare dates
back to 1994 when I became the Chief
Executive. I remained here until June 2009
when I resigned to accept the Government’s
invitation to become Executive Chairman of
the Auckland Transition Agency, the body
responsible for planning and managing
local government reorganisation. Upon the
completion of that assignment, I was thrilled
to rejoin Watercare as it faced its expanded
responsibilities and I would like to record
my thanks to the board members and
executives who acted as caretakers during
my 20-month absence.
From November 2010, and in the months
that have followed, we have continued to
refine the composition of the executive team
to meet the challenges of the expanded
business. I would like to thank all Watercare
staff for their continued efforts during
this time and I believe that the teamwork
and goodwill which exists at all levels of
our organisation positions us strongly to
continue to serve the people of Auckland.
K M Ford
Chief Executive
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