Mobile Water Management starts water meter reading and billing project in Moamba, Mozambique
This summer a consortium of local water authority Administração de Infra-estruturas de Água e Saneamento (AIAS), local operator Collins sistemas de água and Dutch ICT-company Mobile Water Management will start reading water meters by taking pictures with a smart phone and transfer the data to a billing system.
The project is the first in the Via Water programme to support innovative water projects in African cities. The contract for the project was signed on 6 July.
To enable the project by MWM and Collin, a memorandum of understanding was signed Plama, ViaWater and Aquashare.
Matching of two young companies
Administração de Infra-estruturas de Água e Saneamento (AIAS) is the local authority responsible for small and medium town water supply infrastructure. Private enterprise Collins Sistemas de Água executes AIAS's water provision contract for several towns in Mozambique.
The Mozambican platform for public-private water cooperation PLAMA matched Collins with the Dutch ICT-company Mobil Water Management to start a project in Moamba to make drinking water more accessible to citizens with lower incomes.
Mobile Water Management, a Delft University of Technology spin-off, is specialized in tele based monitoring of water related data.
Both Mobile Water Management and Collins are two young and fast growing companies that are planning to make a difference with innovative technology, optimizing and scaling water services in Africa.
A photo of the water meter with a mobile phone is processed to generate a water bill.
More efficient water supply
The project in Moamba is to explore how smartphones can be used as a tool for customer engagement and obtaining customer insights: give insights and trends in the user’s water consumption and enable them to compare their consumption with the average of the neighbourhood.
The experiences will enable local companies like Collins to cut costs and have a more efficient organization, which means this VIA Water project empowers local entrepreneurs to boost their business and realize long term growth ambitions, making clean drinking water more accessible to lower incomes.
In addition the project will address gender specific consumer interaction, focused on the acceptance of the developed meter reading.
The project contributes to the VIA Water program with its combined technical, business and social innovations. For the VIA Water team, it means a first chance of seeing one of the VIA Water ideas come to life, an equally exciting prospect.
About Mobile Water Management
Mobile Water Management was founded in 2012 and consists of a strong international team with field experience and scientific expertise in operational water management. Together, for more than 15 years, it has implemented Decision Support Systems (DSS) for water management all around the world.
About Via Water
Via Water is a Dutch programme that aims to support innovative solutions for water problems facing cities in Africa to get to the next stage. The programme supports innovators in Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda and South Sudan.
Thirteen, mainly Dutch, organisations participate in the programme and fund manager is Aqua for All.
This news item was originally published on the wbesite of Via Water.
More information
Mobile Water Management
Delft, the Netherlands
+31 15 700 97 27
www.mobilewatermanagement.com
Via Water
Delft, the Netherlands
+31 15 2152334
www.viawater.nl
project summary: www.aquaforall.akvoapp.org