General Director of SEAAL water company in Algiers Jean-Marc Jahn: “We reached 94 percent of our objectives”

The Société des Eaux et de l'Assainissement d'Alger (SEAAL) was created in 2006. It is a public operator in charge of water and decontamination services management in Algiers. Its general director Jean-Marc Jahn told Echorouk in an interview about his experience in Algeria.

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• How do you assess your management of the SEAAL?
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• Let’s me say something. The SEAAL is a stock company held by the l’Algérienne des Eaux (ADE) and the l’Office national de l’assainissement (ONA). It signed a management contract with SUEZ Environment, a specialist company in water and decontamination services management. The SEAAL employs 4,516 people. Of them, 24 percent are executives, 40 percent are supervisors and 36 percent are execution agents. There are only 27 experts of SUEZ Environment. The employees’ agen average is at 40. A total of 10,000 to 15,000 training days were organised per year to our employees. Some 50 percent of the training is supervised by Algerian experts. Drinking water supply network in Algiers is estimated at 4,461 KM with 245 drillings, 200 tanks, 58 pump houses and two factories of superficial water treatment. Decontamination network is estimated at 3,115 KM with 4 purification stations. The SEAAL also has 12 distribution operating centres, 6 production operating centres and15 customer agencies. Today, I can say that I am very satisfied about my experience in Algeria as the SEAAL’s manager. Technical toll is good and human toll is very good. Firstly, customer services improved compared to 2006. Secondly, there is the know-how transfer. Algerian competences blossomed and improved their knowledge about decontamination and water services management. Customers satisfaction inquiries conducted by our department show positive results. The last inquiry was carried out among 2,500 customers of the SEAAl in July-August 2009. It showed that 86 percent of the Algerian people said SEAAL’s services were satisfying. The SEAAL obtained innovation trophy SUEZ E,vironment for its “pressures card” which is an unseen worldwide tool set up by our local teams.
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• Your delegated management contract will expire in September 2011. Are you satisfied about the work achieved so far?
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• Today, we can say that 94 percent of our objectives fixed in the delegated management contract were reached. Algeria’s population enjoys water all day long while 8 percent of them have this privilege in 2006. Loss rate is estimated at 32 percent compared to 40 percent in 2006. That means a slump of 8 percent. The SEAAL renews 50 to 100 KM per year the drinking water supply network in Algiers. We have asked a research department to make a water schema 2025. It is a 15 years road map of water and decontamination services management in Algiers. It was approved by the SEAAL and water department of Algiers.
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• Its setting up needs 5 to 10 billion DZ per year. The SEAAL achieved 747 projects and water and decontamination workshops in 2009. It solved 20,000 leak problems per year and renewed 15,000 branch pipes renewed per year. It also renews 56 KM of decontamination watercourse per year and treated 102 million cube metres of used water per year.
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• What about the green number 1594?
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• This number is intended to our customers. It enables to receive complaints from our customers including water and decontamination technical problems such as leaks, cuts, blocked sewers, bad smelling and decontamination network overflowing. Some 500 to 1,200 calls were received per day on the green number 1594. A total of 97 percent of the calls were efficiently taken.