Waterra - New Website Launched

Welcome to the new Waterra website!

We have completely redesigned our site to improve navigation and information resources for our customers. New features include the ability to search for products from anywhere in the web site, news articles and technical pages with links to training and other groundwater information sources. The structure of the new website provides us with greater flexibility and the opportunity to improve technical content. Over the coming months we will be updating and adding new information and we are confident you will notice the difference!

The new site has been structured to allow new on-line trading features to be added. Watch this space for developments!

The layout, style and initial coding of the web site was designed for us by Mjdesign with detailed coding and integration into our accounting system carried out by our own in-house IT specialist, Stephen Wallice.


Waterra is a leading provider of Groundwater Equipment for Professionals. Check out our wide range of monitoring, analysis and pumping products or contact our support team for advice and information.

Waterra customer survey - Excellent Feedback

Snapshot of results of customer survey - customers interested in on-line purchasing

Earlier this year Waterra launched our first ever, on-line customer survey, putting in place a formal process to gather information about our customers, their requirements and how we serve them. Over 200 of our customers completed the confidential survey and the overwhelming response was extremely positive - our thanks to everyone who took part.

The results in the form of customer comments are outlined below with the Waterra response in italics.

What you buy and where from
Most customers buy a range of groundwater equipment and many products are most often bought from Waterra.
We will be taking actions to improve our offers so that Waterra becomes the first choice for groundwater equipment for all our customers.

Customers came up with a number of ideas for other items to be included in our product range.
We will be investigating the ideas and also plan to increase customer awareness of the full range of groundwater equipment which we have available.

Criteria used when selecting a supplier and the scores you gave Waterra
Value/Price, Pre-sales Technical Advice and Product Range are the most important criteria customers use when selecting a supplier.
Waterra scored highly against all these criteria.

Customers were less concerned about Speed of Delivery and Post Sales Support.
- but still gave Waterra high scores on these.

Several customers added additional criteria which they felt were important.
We will add these additional criteria to our surveys in the future.

Waterra Service Levels
We received a large number of positive individual comments about the service we provide.
There were a small number of customer specific issues which we will address on an individual basis. We can only respond to specific issues where customers have given permission for their identity to be revealed.

Waterra Website
Most customers only visit the Waterra website occasionally.
Our new website was launched recently including a major overhaul of layout, information and product content. We hope that this will encourage you to visit it more frequently.

Many customers would like the opportunity to purchase all products on-line and some said they would like on-line purchasing available for commodity products only.
We have built the facility to offer on-line purchasing into our new website and we plan to pilot this functionality later in the year. Watch this space!

Waterra Communications
Most customers like to receive information from Waterra on at least a quarterly basis and the preferred means of communications was email.
We have recently upgraded the service we use to deliver emails to you and we now plan to use this service in future.

Your perceptions of Waterra
Almost all customers see Waterra as a Specialist Provider of Groundwater Equipment.
This is exactly the way we would describe ourselves! Thank you!

Some customers said that Waterra’s staff are knowledgeable and helpful.
This is an aspect of our service that we are keen to maintain and continuously improve.

Summary
The information customers have provided is invaluable for the development of Waterra and our relationship with our customers.

We have already implemented a number of changes and the first of these, the re-launched website, is available now.

Please do not feel that this survey is the only opportunity for customers to provide us with feedback. We are happy to receive comments at any time.

We would particularly remind those customers who were not able to participate that, if they have different views from those above please do make us aware of them.

Finally, as agreed we are delighted to have been able to send a cheque for £250 to WaterAid to reflect our thanks for customer participation.


Waterra is a leading provider of Groundwater Equipment for Professionals. Check out our wide range of monitoring, analysis and pumping products or contact our support team for advice and information.

Waterra training helps the people of Darfur

George Otieno of Tearfund with (LtoR) David Wilson, Tim Davies and M-D, Peter Dumble of Waterra.

Over 2 million displaced people in Darfur currently live in crowded camps each with populations of several tens of thousands. Oxfam* and Tearfund** have both been involved with emergency relief work in Darfur since the current crisis started in 2003. To respond to the initial emergency requirement for water supply in the camps, hundreds of boreholes were drilled which have proved remarkably successful.

However, with the conflict showing no sign of ending, both Oxfam and Tearfund are investigating the longer term sustainability of groundwater supplies in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). One part of this investigation requires groundwater levels in boreholes to be monitored so that factors such as responses to rainfall recharge events, natural seasonal variations and evidence for depletion can be studied.

Following the purchase of a series of Leveloggers by Oxfam and Tearfund in 2007 Waterra stepped in and offered to provide free training to personnel involved with water resource projects in Darfur. Three workshops have been delivered in 2008 and training materials provided through trainers to others in Darfur. The courses have been tailored to provide field staff with the skills and confidence to efficiently use loggers in the field. Particular emphasis is placed on the adoption of good quality control measures which improve the accuracy and validation of logger data.

George Otieno who received training from Waterra said 'The provision of training by Waterra has enabled Oxfam and Tearfund to improve our core skills of technical staff travelling to Darfur and for us in turn to cascade this training to other team members based in Darfur.' He added “We would like to thank Waterra for this knowledge which is being put to immediate use as there has recently been some new Levelogger installations.” George is a Civil Engineer from Kenya and has over 20 years experience of aid programmes in Africa and the Middle East. George was sent by Tearfund to update his knowledge for using Leveloggers on projects he will be managing in Darfur

Sarah Andrews, Water and Sanitary Health Manager for Tearfund in Darfur has spent the last two years in Darfur with Tearfund constructing water supply systems. Professor Richard Carter of Cranfield University acts as a consultant to Oxfam in Darfur. Professor Carter is an internationally renowned expert on water related aid and development projects, particularly in Africa. He has over 35 years teaching and consultancy experience based out of Cranfield University where he has been Professor for the last 5 years. Professor Carter travelled to Darfur in July for Oxfam to provide technical training and consultancy on water supply in Darfur.

*Oxfam is a vibrant global movement of dedicated people fighting poverty. People power drives everything Oxfam do. From saving lives and developing projects that put poor people in charge of their lives and livelihoods, to campaigning for change that lasts. Oxfam fights poverty in three ways - Campaigning for change, development work and emergency response.

**Tearfund is a Christian relief and development agency working with a global network of local churches to help eradicate poverty. Tearfund’s ten year vision is to see 50 million people released from material and spiritual poverty through a worldwide network of 100,000 local churches.

Waterra is a leading provider of Groundwater Equipment for Professionals. Check out our wide range of monitoring, analysis and pumping products or contact our support team for advice and information.

Waterra support groundwater level training course in Belfast

Waterra is supporting a one day training course on water level measurement and use of dataloggers to be held on 8th October 2008 in Belfast. The course is sponsored by the Institution of Geologists of Ireland (IGI), Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI), Quarry Products Association of Northern Ireland (QPA), DETI and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).

For booking and other information go to www.igi.ie.

There is a growing need to collect groundwater level data and predict impacts on water levels from a range of activities such as groundwater abstraction, mineral workings and infrastructure projects. The collection and interpretation of groundwater level data enables groundwater professionals to conceptualise and begin to understand the hydrogeological environment.

The course will emphasise the importance of water level measurements on a national and local scale, with particular reference to the requirements of the Water Framework Directive and the demands and rationale for monitoring by industry in Northern Ireland.

The course is presented by a series of experienced practitioners and consists of mixture of lectures and workshops based around real case histories. Sessions include an appreciation of different equipment for recording water levels - from manual dip meters to automatic datalogging systems. Peter Dumble from Waterra will be speaking about the importance of quality control and good field practice when deploying dataloggers and examining the accuracy of Leveloggers based on an independent collection of water levels over a 1 year period by Kevin Cullen, President of IGI.

This one day course is designed to assist all those involved in the collection and interpretation of water level data or those commissioning hydrogeological assessments for their sites. The course will be of interest to regulators responsible for the collection and reporting of national water level data sets, the licensing of water abstractions, protection of wetlands and monitoring of industrial facilities. The course will be of value to practitioners who carry out hydrogeological studies for groundwater abstractions, contaminated land assessments and quarrying/mining activities. This one day course will also be of interest to those presenting and /or assessing hydrogeological data in EIS’s and at oral hearings.

Waterra is a leading provider of Groundwater Equipment for Professionals. Check out our wide range of monitoring, analysis and pumping products or contact our support team for advice and information.