Faced with the expansion of COVID-19, ACCIONA have been working every day guaranteeing basic services such as drinking water supplies and good sanitation.
Drinking water, washing our hands, showering, cooking, washing dishes, watering plants… Small gestures we are used to, gestures that have taken on more importance than ever in recent weeks.
Tap water is safe, as the World Health Organization highlighted in its report Water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management for the COVID-19 virus. However, it is also necessary to continue with correct hygiene measures to fight the virus, which is why the water team of ACCIONA has adapted its working procedures so that the result remains the same: guaranteeing the availability of quality water.
The service is available 24/7, guaranteeing water supplies and ensuring sanitation
Over the last two months ACCIONA has continued to manage the end-to-end water cycle in the municipalities and treatment plants where it operates, both in Spain and in the rest of the world.
This means providing a service to more than 35 million people. In other words: 42 hm3 of drinking water supplied to the networks and more than 367.5 hm3 of wastewater treated. Together with the supply of drinking water, ensuring good sanitation and the correct treatment of the wastewater that is generated every day in any town or city is a basic service to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystems we live in.
Due to the different emerging scenarios, the Water service from ACCIONA has taken all the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of its users and employees, replacing face-to-face contact with electronic communication and maintaining 24/7 emergency telephones in each locality.
Desalination
In regions such as the Middle East or countries like Australia, Chile and Peru, a large part of ACCIONA’s Water area activity has focused on the operation and maintenance of the reverse osmosis plants that the company manages to guarantee quality water supplies. In total, and considering the figures for Spain and the world, around 70 hm3 of desalinated water has been produced in the last two months.
New tools to facilitate teleworking
ACCIONA has also provided its employees who can work from home with the resources, technology, and communication tools they need to do this. This challenge has represented a valuable learning curve towards the creation of a new digital working model.
The IT department has implemented a plan based on three elements:
1) Ensure connectivity
2) Guarantee access to corporate information, data, and applications,
3) Facilitate communication.
In total, around fifty laptop computers have been provided, around 80 mobile workstations have been organised and 265 remote connections activated, as well as reconfiguring existing connections to ensure faster transmission and information transfers.
Permanent communication with employees and clients
In an exceptional situation like this, encouraging and strengthening internal communications between employees and the company, and between the company and its customers, is another priority. This has led to new digital exchange spaces such as the weekly “Virtual Coffees” with experts from the company offering their vision of the sector.
ACCIONA also maintains continuous communication with its clients through webinars and regional webcasts focused on the new scenario faced by the water sector and ACCIONA’s strategy in the face of these new challenges.
Guaranteeing access to a basic commodity -water- is ACCIONA’s main objective. To do this, we work to adapt to circumstances so that we can continue to ensure the supply of drinking water, desalination, and wastewater treatment under the best possible conditions.
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