SA Water regulatory performance report 2019-20

10 Mar 2021

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The Commission has released a report which outlines the performance of SA Water for the period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020:

  • SA Water met 17 of the 18 customer and reliability service standard targets. It missed the target for responding to water quality complaints within the required timeframes in Regional areas of South Australia by one percentage point. However, that outcome was within the expected range of average performance for the service standard and no further regulatory action is required.
  • SA Water received 2.01 complaints per 1,000 customers, which was the same as observed in 2018-19 and lower than the levels observed in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 (2.32, 2.49 and 2.28 respectively).
  • 99 percent of water service restorations in the Adelaide Metropolitan area were completed on time, with an average customer outage duration of 204 minutes. This represents a reduction in duration as compared to 2018-19 (243 minutes).
  • 95 percent of sewerage service restorations in the Adelaide Metropolitan area were completed on time. However, the average customer outage duration of 736 minutes was a significant increase as compared to 2018-19 (482 minutes) and higher than the longer-term average of 428 minutes. Of note, there has been a material upwards trend in this area since 2016-17. The Commission is investigating this issue and has sought from SA Water detailed information as to the underlying causes that might explain the deterioration of performance over time. Once the Commission has completed the investigation, it will provide further public information on the outcomes and any regulatory actions to be taken.

The report details SA Water’s performance against its regulatory requirements, including service standards. These relate principally to customer service and the reliability of drinking water and sewerage services.