FCC subsidiary Aqualia, a specialist in end-to-end water management, has opened its first customer care office in Italy, in the Sicilian city of Caltanissetta, where its Italian headquarters will be located.
In the coming months, Aqualia will open offices in the municipalities of Gela, Niscemi, Mazzarino, Mussomeli and San Cataldo and will implement other customer care initiatives such as a mobile office to attend to all the towns, separate hotlines for information and breakdown notices, and over 11,000 separate actions to check and correct its customer data base. The company is also working on a tariff scheme that takes account of the region's specific features, and a new web site.
One year ago, Aqualia took over management of the complete water cycle (including water supply and purification, and sewage treatment) for the close to 300,000 inhabitants of the 22 municipalities in the Sicilian province of Caltanissetta.
The contract, which is for 30 years, represents a backlog of 1.5 billion euro and includes investing over 248 million euro, mostly from European funds, 150 million euro of which will be invested in the next three years.
The greatest challenge facing the company is supplying quality water to the population 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Most towns only have water supplies in alternating time periods once every three days.
In the first year, the company has replaced over 3,000 water meters and installed pressure reducer valves to stem water losses; it has also established a new water quality analysis laboratory and undertaken more than 2,000 actions in the sewage grid as well as seeking new sources of water and enhancing existing sources, with the result that it has tripled the water supply. As a result, water distribution has improved by 238.4%.
Aqualia operates in over 850 municipalities worldwide, serving over 16 million people. It operates in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Algeria, Czech Republic, Poland, Mexico and China. In recognition of its rapid international expansion, its will to lead and its commitment to its services territories, Aqualia was named "Water Company of the Year" this year by prestigious international magazine Global Water Intelligence.
