Date
01.05.2022
By
DKA

Smart Solutions: Joseph’s digital tools for water management in Kenya

Sustainable Livelihoods
Article
Co-financing
East Africa
Climate Action

This is the story of Joseph N'ganga, a water caretaker who adapted the mWater app to better coordinate his team's work in one of East Africa's driest regions.

01

Joseph's story

Drinking water in Turkana

Joseph is part of the Diocese of Lodwar’s water team. His role is to install and maintain a vast pumping system in the Turkana County of Kenya, one of the driest regions in East Africa.

Here, access to drinking water is as essential as it is challenging – but Joseph and his team are making sure that it happens.

02

The issue

Coordinating without signal

Maintaining water pumps in Turkana, with an area about the size of Austria, is not an easy task. Monitoring the work is especially challenging: as signal is very erratic, data is recorded on paper and has to be exchanged in person.

With no up-to-date overview of the condition of individual pumps, repairs, or spare parts needed, it is difficult to coordinate between the disperse team members.

03

The cooperation

Access to know-how

Seeking support in the area of monitoring and evaluation, Jospeh turned to horizont3000’s programme Borrow-an-Advisor. This tool enables short-term consultancies by advisors who are already working with organisations in the same region.

In this way, the water management expert Clemens Griesauer was asked to lend his know-how to the water team.

04

The app

'We wanted a practical tool that works in all circumstances.'

In several visits and workshops, Clemens introduced Joseph and his team to the free and open app mWater.

This app is not only easy to use, it also has one big advantage: you don’t need signal to record data. The moment the app receives a signal, all data is sent to the administration office. There, the work of the team in the field can be coordinated.

05

The Results

Today...

After seeing the possibilities, Joseph and his team adapted the mWater app to their operations. They build an efficient workflow that makes use of the app’s features, including GPS tracking, photo documentation, and text message reports.

Joseph now has more time to concentrate on what he does best: assuring that the pumps deliver clean drinking water to the people of Turkana.

There’s a lot more where this came from. Curious?

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