Drinking water supply

Closing the service gap in rural and peri-urban areas and ensure a sustainable access to drinking water

Drinking water supply

With the establishment of SDG 6 in 2015, the required increase in access to safe drinking water gets considerable attention in the WASH sector. Nevertheless, despite the many water infrastructure projects that took place in Africa during the last decade, within 5 years about 25 to 30% of the hardware is no longer operational (Source: What’s working where and for how long, 2016, RWSN).

We believe that the most vulnerable populations are truly supported if technical capacity and financial sustainability is guaranteed in the long term. Practica therefore aims to close the water service gap in rural and peri-urban low-income areas by building capacity of governments and WASH actors to establish technically flexible, financially viable and affordable water services.

We provide tools, advice and training to support this.

Practica is committed to tackling the challenges of sustainable access to safe drinking water by working on three fronts:

Innovations

TokenTap

The TokenTap is a simple and mechanical prepaid technology to facilitate drinking water supply in rural and (peri-)urban areas.

Asset management tools

We developed a toolbox to support the management of water systems by setting up a financially viable plan, easily monitored and adjustable. 

Modular piped system

Flexible, modular designs to lower costs and maintenance of drinking water systems on the short and long term.

Women fetching water with jerrycans at a water point

What we offer

We offer these services throughout our themes and we always work in collaboration with a local partner.

Examples of projects

Research, consultancy & advice - Modular building in Ghana and Uganda

Drinking water supply from a modular building in Ghana

In rural Ghana, Practica piloted together with project Maji the concept of modular piped drinking water systems. We compared the performance of three small water kiosks on one borehole with a single water kiosk setup. Monitoring demonstrated almost 2.5 times extra water sales at the multi-kiosk setup while initial capital investment cost only increased 60% compared to a single water kiosk. In rural Uganda, Practica implemented another 4 pilot schemes with funding from Woord & Daad and the WASH Alliance international. At these schemes, yard connections have been added to the multi-kiosk concept bringing water to people’s doorstep. This seems to result in even better water sales and a greater willingness-to-pay with little extra capital investment. Overall, the first findings from these pilot schemes show that creating higher service levels can go hand-in-hand with closing the current gap of too little generated income to cover for maintenance expenditures and future replacements in rural areas. A full paper on the Ghana project findings can be found here.

Technical design & innovation - TokenTap testing in Mozambique, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali and Ghana

Practica investigates together with a few implementing organisations (Dorcas, WorldHope, J4W, Project Maji) the suitability of the TokenTap. All organisations aim to provide safe drinking water while ensuring people will pay for this service. They have experienced that post-billing at public water points often results in non-payment and/or that electronic prepaid devices are too expensive and too difficult to maintain in a (semi) rural setting. Practica’s TokenTaps are simple, robust and easy to install prepaid devices under development. 

The projects are being monitored: this will result in valuable feedback on the operation of the TokenTap, which we will use to improve its design. Since the TokenTaps monitor water sales and consumption behaviour - the devices will also provide valuable information on whether there is enough income generated to cover for maintenance expenditures and future replacement costs.

TokenTap testing

Technical training - Water Systems’ Asset Management tools in Nepal, Bangladesh and Uganda

https://wash-alliance.org/

As part of our engagement in the WASH Alliance International, Practica develops a tool box on Drinking Water Systems’ Asset Management. 

This toolbox consists of a learning environment in which the principles of water systems’ asset management are explained. The learning environment is tailored to different target groups. It is suitable for online learning by professionals and as a resource classroom facilitation and field training to local staff and communities. It contains short videos, concept descriptions, case studies, short quizzes and practical assignments.

The toolbox also includes an android mobile app and web-dashboard for asset management planning & monitoring. The software assists responsible stakeholders to plan and track the technical - financial performance of their water infrastructure.  

The whole toolbox is developed in Nepal and will be tested in Nepal, Bangladesh and Uganda to ensure the software is ready for upscaling and roll out. In Nepal, the water user committees of Nala and Golapur have been selected for testing the app & dashboard, and in Bangladesh, Satkhira and Kalaroa municipalities. In Uganda, it is envisioned that the Water Resource Institute will play a role in the testing of the learning environment.

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