PRESS RELEASE
New Amjasa Board Takes on Challenge to Improve Desalination Plant
Javea. Tuesday 30th August 2011.
The first official meeting of the new supervisory board of the public water utility company AMJASA took place this morning, under the chairmanship of Mayor José Chulvi. Also, Josep Lluis Henarejos was unanimously appointed vice-president and chief executive officer. And the first measure taken by the new governing body, determined to improve the management of the municipal company, was to create three working committees. According to the Chairman of the Board and Mayor of Javea, José Chulvi, one committee will take on modernisation and customer support, another will take on improvement of infrastructure and energy savings, and a third will be responsible for staff management and financial resources. These committees will have representatives from all the political parties.
Chulvi has indicated that AMJASA faces an important turning point with regards to its future, which is why the supervisory board should have a greater involvement and dedication in the direct management of the water company. This approach has met with success in other difficult periods in the past. According to the Mayor, the Board is aware of the urgent need to address a change in the organisation and management of the company “from an open and inclusive perspective” to meet AMJASA’s main challenge: “ensuring the good governance of the Public Water Supply and adapting to changing times.”
The mayor of Javea has shown readiness to “increase awareness of one of our biggest assets”, the water supply and desalination plant. With regards to this, the new CEO Josep Lluis Henarejos added that they are prepared to talk with the Ministerio to offer the desalination plant as a water solution for the Marina Alta local region and as such “make profit on the initial investment made by Javea”. And, of course, without losing control of its asset. “This is non-negotiable,” Henarejos assured.
Henarejos also gave details of immediate measures for overall improvement of the company, such as the application of new technologies for customer support or an internal reorganisation of the 46-member personnel staff. The CEO also indicated that the first order of business for the new board is to carry out a diagnosis of the exact state of the company. This will be done taking into account the audit that was carried out two years ago and was never applied.
Another challenge that the new board has taken on is to ensure that AMJASA is able to offer a complete water service - not only supplying drinking water to more than 25,000 clients, but also taking on the sanitation, recycling and reutilisation of water.
The board will meet this week and twice more this month, in addition to the working committees. The aim is to have an analysis of the situation prepared by the end of the month, which the citizens of Javea will subsequently be informed of.
