Project Lead(s): Kwabena Nyarko
Issue
Rural areas in many developing countries are faced with poor, unreliable and unsustainable water services.
Even where there are hand pumps, a majority of water supply facilities do not provide a basic level of service and there are constant breakdowns of equipment.
Solution
Implemented in Ghana, the project team developed a mobile phone application aimed at improving the sustainability of rural water service delivery by providing a better supply chain for spare parts.
The team partnered with SkyFox Ltd., a private, SMS-based payments service provider in Ghana, and Millicom Ghana Limited, one of the leading telecommunications service providers in Ghana, to develop and deploy its SMS platform for checking/ordering hand pump spare parts in 70 rural communities in Ghana.
The platform was integrated with Millicom Ghana Limited’s Tigo Cash, a leading mobile money brand in Ghana. Through this integration, SkyFox Ltd. can provide a mobile phone-based transaction portal for communities to report breakdowns of their water facilities, check the prices of spare parts via SMS and pay for spare parts ordered via Tigo Cash Mobile Money.
Outcome
A total of 81 out of 104 water service providers have been able to use the application to report on their pump working status from time to time, and 18 water service providers have been able to procure spare parts using the technology.
Monitoring officials have also been able to generate reports from periodic updates on pumps.
Results from the project include:
· Reduction in average total downtime of 39 hand pumps by 47% (from 3.53 to 2.40 days) over the period
· Cost savings of 54% from the use of the system to procure parts over the average cost of transportation to procure parts reported at baseline
· Creating awareness among 10 water service providers, area mechanics and district officials on the use of the mobile phone to report on pump working status and also to procure spare parts.
The team disseminated this new knowledge through conferences and events, and applied for scale-up funding to expand services to other parts of Ghana.