Drinking water supply

An entrepreneurial model to manage rural drinking water sustainably

Drinking water supply

While access to water supply increased in the global South during the last decades, within five years about 25 to 30% of the placed systems are no longer operational. A business case preventing downtimes and delivering safe and reliable water services at people’s doorstep in urban areas is proven to be possible, but how to realise this for rural areas in the global South? Rural stakeholders face numerous challenges: low service levels with long downtimes and far walking distances, small and spread-out user groups, low revenue collection, and a lack of systematic approaches for operation and maintenance. Practica aims to close the water service gap in rural and peri-urban low-income areas by building the capacity of public and private WASH actors to establish technically flexible, financially viable, and affordable water services.

With our WaterTime concept, we provide tools, advice and training to support this.

Practica builds under its WaterTime concept an entrepreneurial model to manage rural drinking water services sustainability by:

Innovations

Pre-Paid Water Site Selection Tool

The Site-Selection Tool is a structured, user-friendly approach to determine optimal locations for pre-paid water systems, which can be applied to both handpumps and piped-water systems.

Learn more

Modular solar-powered WaterTime systems

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

Learn more

Water System Asset Management toolbox

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

Learn more

TokenTap

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

Learn more
Click here to discover more

Modular Solar-powered WaterTime systems - Research, consultancy & advice

Rural areas can slowly make the transition from handpumps to solar-powered piped water systems with the help of a modular WaterTime approach. The initial investment is rather small, just consisting of one or more small stand-alone water kiosks spread across an area. These kiosks are served from a single well without the need for a central water tower. This type of mini-grid setup can be stand-alone but also be attached to existing piped networks of water utilities to serve peri-urban settlements. When more people need to be served and socio-economic circumstances allow more investments, additional pipelines, public standpoints, and also yard / household connections can be established— using the same water source. This approach is most effective in combination with sound water system asset management practices and  easy-to-maintain water pre-paid solutions

In 2021, Practica piloted together with project Maji the concept of modular solar-powered and piped drinking water systems in Ghana. 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. (A full paper on the findings can be found here.)

Practica continued building the case for modular piped mini-grid systems in rural Uganda and Mozambique with support from Woord & Daad, WASH Alliance International and Dorcas. At these schemes, yard connections have been added to the multi-kiosk concept bringing water to people’s doorstep. This resulted in even better water sales and a greater willingness-to-pay with little extra capital investment.

Overall, the findings from these WaterTime schemes show that creating higher service levels in rural areas can go hand-in-hand with closing the current gap of too little generated income to cover operational and maintenance expenditures. 

TokenTap piped system Mozambique

Water Systems’ Asset Management - capacity building

Installation of pipes and system_Uganda

For more than a decade, Practica has built the capacity of the WASH sector in Solar-powered water systems (SPWS), for both domestic and productive uses. By now, several training materials on siting, (modular) design, and installation of SPWS are available.

However, the rural water sector still has little knowledge and skills for financial management and operation & maintenance (O&M) of SPWS and other water infrastructure. Therefore, Practica initiated the development of an open-source toolbox for Water System Asset Management (WSAM) which supports rural water operators, caretakers, and governmental institutions in optimising the technical and financial performance of their water systems during the O&M phase. The WSAM tools enable setting service level agreements, developing maintenance plans, selecting a suitable water tariff and tracking the water systems performance during the operational phase.

The toolbox consists of a paper-based training manual with Excel templates for planning and monitoring, a free-access e-learning environment for three different target groups, an Android app for caretakers to insert cash handlings and log issues and maintenance, and a web-dashboard for managers to track financial, technical and water quality parameters.

Reach out for more information. Practica is also well-versed with other developments and applications in the sector, like mWater, and is in the position to provide independent consultancy and training on how to plan, design and monitor your water assets sustainably.

TokenTap - Technical design & innovation

Prepayment devices enable water fee collection to cover for operation and maintenance costs over the years and prevents possible non-payments of post bills. Various pre-paid water options are available on the market, mostly electronic devices. Practica, however, recommends applying a mechanical pre-paid solution in rural areas for both piped networks and handpumps. This solution avoids competition between free and paid water sources, it is affordable and has simple maintenance requirements that can be executed by local technicians. Practica offers this solution, called the TokenTap.

The TokenTap for handpumps is being pilot-tested in Uganda in partnership with GOAL, and the TokenTap for piped water systems is starting to scale under the WaterTime project with Dorcas in Mozambique. Early-stage prototypes have been placed in Mali, Ghana and Liberia. The pilots' insights contribute to product iterations and steps towards commercialisation and potential production. Currently, serial production in India is being prepared, and a possible network of retailers in East Africa is being set up.

Are you interested in pilot testing, supporting scaling or becoming one of our future producers, retailers, or after-sales support partners? Please reach out!

 

TokenTap handpump in gebruik
TokenTap used by women in Mozambique for drinking water supply. Photo by Steven Maenda from Dorcas Mozambique
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.

Research, consultancy & advice

PRACTICA provides technical support to partners looking to innovate and promote adapted water, irrigation and sanitation solutions. We conduct technical feasibility studies and work on applied research programs. We advise partners on the use and conditions of technologies and associated scaling and support mechanisms.

Sector development

We promote a supply chain approach, aimed at establishing strong local networks of producers, operators and supporting organisations. By providing tools and strengthening  capacities at all levels, we enhance the local market for technologies, including the necessary maintenance and quality control systems.

Technical training

We transfer knowledge and strengthen the capacities of NGOs, governments and local enterprises through tailor-made trainings. We develop and conduct practical trainings with hands-on exercises, classroom sessions and serious games. We also offer complementary decision-support apps and e-learning materials.

Technical design & innovation

The design of new products and the adaptation of existing technologies to a specific local context are at the origin of Practica. We develop and test our innovations in the workshop and invest in sound feedback loops and continuous exchange with partners in the field.

Latest news on drinking water supply

Improving the management of water points in Ambatofotsy, Madagascar

By Thirza Hol | 23 March 2026