Author: DEUS NGOWI
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE United Kingdom-based RSKeWATERservices has won a tender to install 650 solar powered eWaterPay ‘pay as you go’ water meters across Dodoma and Singida regions.
It employs a low-cost pay as you go water system using mobile technology that is already serving 110,000 families across The Gambia, Ghana and Tanzania and have dispensed over 260 million litres of affordable, accessible clean water to rural communities.
That has been possible due to deep mobile penetration across Africa, as mPesa helped the unbanked, eWATER seeks to help those without affordable access to clean water.
RSKeWATERservices is a joint venture between the leading integrated environmental, engineering and technical services business, RSK, and eWATERServices, the company behind the eWater- Pay system.
eWATERpay comprises a solar-powered tap connected to a digital wallet that is situated within a village community.
The revenue collected is used to cover the costs of accessing clean water, which is then used to operate and maintain systems over time.
The device successfully addresses the twin challenges of water infrastructural maintenance and availability by offering round the clock access to water for users, unlike in the past when a borehole could have only had the personnel at it for a specific time period.
In sub-Saharan Africa, about 40 per cent of the population lacks safe drinking water.
Within ten years, the global demand for water is expected to grow by 50 per cent.
According to a recent World Bank (WB) study on the performance of water supply services in Africa, half of the region’s utilities do not have funds to cover their operation and maintenance costs.
Countries need to build up their operational capacities and use both public and private utilities to meet the demand for sufficient volumes of quality water.
The government has launched the Accelerating Solar Water Pumping via Innovative Financing (ASWPTIF) project to address this issue.
The ASWPTIF project is being led by the government of Tanzania through their TIB Development Bank with funds from the WB.
The RSKeWATERservices JV successfully won the tender to install just under 650 solarpowered pay as you go water meters across two districts in the country.
Water shortage is a big challenge in Africa, according to Mr Nick Leason, the director of Projects and Public Affairs, eWATERservices.
“Many rural communities across Africa are plagued by water systems installed with good intent by global charities and NGOs, but with little thought to the sustainability of these systems, meaning that when a pipe bursts or a pump fails, there are no funds, engineers or spare parts to repair them.”
