Võru Vesi AS: in ensuring a vital service, one must keep up with innovations
If water no longer comes from the tap or wastewater does not drain away, it quickly paralyzes everyday life. The interruption of water and sewage services is not just an inconvenience – it threatens people's health, the environment, and the functioning of the entire society. Therefore, as providers of vital services, water companies have an exceptional responsibility: their systems must be reliable even in crisis situations, while also meeting increasingly strict security requirements.
Võru Vesi AS, which serves the city of Võru and four surrounding municipalities, knows this very well. Their daily challenge is to ensure the quality of drinking water and the functioning of sewage services over a large area, at a time when crises are becoming more frequent and digital solutions have become inevitable.
Challenges from climate change to the legacy of the Soviet era
According to Marko Tolga, Development Manager at Võru Vesi AS, their main challenges are related to crises that have become topical today: “Frequent power outages, for example due to trees falling on lines because of snow, increasingly hinder the functioning of the service. Our area is very large, and we must always know whether the service is working smoothly everywhere.”
The complexity is increased by old pipelines – in smaller settlements, these often date back to the Soviet era. In many places, there are no precise drawings of the pipeline locations, which makes every malfunction a serious challenge.
Similar to Tartu, Tallinn, and other cities, Võru also faces the problem of short and intense rainfalls. “In rural areas, this is not as noticeable, but the city of Võru is also an area at risk of flooding. Due to rainfall and soil moisture, there is a lot of excess water in the sewage system. Fortunately, we receive European support to develop and replace pipelines,” explains Marko.
Innovations that ensure reliability
One might assume that the work of a water company remains the same for decades, but in reality, Võru Vesi is constantly looking for ways to make their work and the lives of their clients more secure. For example, Võru Vesi was one of the first water companies in Estonia to install remotely readable water meters for all clients. They also operate a modern SCADA GIS application, with which they monitor important sites remotely in real time and can also control pumps if necessary.
In addition, they actively invest in energy efficiency – many sites have solar energy devices with storage units to make maximum use of zero-energy solutions. This makes Võru Vesi one of the most progressive water companies in Estonia.
10 years to fiber optic cable
Marko says that 10 years ago, a fiber optic cable was laid past their gate, but they could not get a connection to the office: “The company that built it was not very communicative. We submitted an application, but never received a response to our inquiries. Eventually, we started looking for another partner who would be able to build the fiber optic connection for us.”
Finding a service provider was no joke, because as a provider of a vital service, the company's IT systems must meet strict NIS2 cybersecurity requirements. Elisa was chosen, and during the project, the cooperation turned out to be broader than expected. For example, Elisa replaced the company's servers, helped rebuild the IT infrastructure, and raised the level of security.
How to ensure both data traceability and protection
The internet forms the backbone of their daily work for both the 13 people working in the office and the maintenance team. Although water does not get stuck in the pipes if the connection is lost, data no longer reaches the office. “Most of our sites are remotely monitored, but of course over the internet. Without the internet, alerts from the site do not arrive, and if something goes wrong somewhere, the functioning of the service is not guaranteed,” explains Marko.
According to Marko, thanks to Elisa's offer, they gained a better understanding of what they need. For example, when procuring a server, there was the question of whether to go to the cloud, but in the end, it was decided to also keep the data physically at the company, to ensure access in an emergency.
“The result is a modern and reliable system, where critical programs are backed up both physically and in Elisa's cloud,” Marko is pleased.
Võru Vesi AS uses Elisa's fiber optic fixed connection, firewall, servers, their backup and management. Are you looking for a modern and secure IT partner for your company providing a vital service? Contact us and we will find solutions that support your business .