Jersey Water records £3.2m profits despite turnover drop

Friday 08 January 2021

Jersey Water saw its profits increase by 16% in 2020, reaching £3.2m despite seeing its turnover reduce by 0.8%.

According to the company’s Annual Report, the increase in profit was driven by a 3.4% reduction in operating costs.

Jersey Water had planned to increase its tariffs in April 2020 but postponed the move for six months with customer charges remaining at 2019 levels until October. 

Demand for water in 2020 was 0.8% higher than in 2019 - reaching 7,016 MI, but below the five-year average.

The quality of water supplied throughout the year remained of very high quality with an overall compliance rate of 99.98% with no instances of pesticides or nitrates exceeding regulatory limits in treated water. 

Meanwhile bacteriological compliance of water leaving the Treatment Works was year 100% for the second year running.

Pictured: Jersey Water’s Chief Executive, Helier Smith.

Jersey Water invested £1 million in infrastructure to improve water quality and resilience, as well as £1,18million on the mains network including the renewal of 1.2km and the extension of 2.0km, bringing high-quality mains water to 470 additional properties.

“I am immensely proud of how our team at Jersey Water responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, going above and beyond, and putting the needs of the community for a reliable supply of high-quality water throughout lockdown above their own,” Jersey Water’s Chief Executive, Helier Smith, said.

“Whilst the year has been overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been a successful period for Jersey Water. We adapted our operational routines and were able to mitigate, to some extent, the effects of the pandemic on our financial performance and the important projects we have underway, minimising delays and making meaningful progress on a broad front.”

This year, Jersey Water will be releasing its water resources management plan. “During the year we developed the preferred package of measures that we will adopt to address the forecast future deficit in water resources,” Mr Smith said.

“The initial five-year phase of the plan will focus on creating additional desalination capacity through the extension of the existing plant and reducing demand for water, through the development of a Water Efficiency Strategy and further reductions in leakage. Subsequent phases of our plan will concentrate on increased resilience, additional sources of water and further reservoir capacity.”