In 2015, 663 million people worldwide still lacked access to improved drinking water, in the form of piped or non-piped improved sources. Nearly half of those without improved drinking water, relying instead on sources such as unprotected wells or surface water, live in Sub-Saharan Africa, while one fifth live in Southern Asia.

Reliance on unimproved water sources stems from two main challenges: lack of safe water supply and inefficient delivery of services to consumers. While the issue of supply has historically received the most attention from governments and international Institutions, poor service delivery is just as detrimental to consumers and water service providers (WSPs), both centralised urban utilities and decentralised rural providers. This crisis results in high financial losses and leaves WSPs with insufficient funds to maintain infrastructure or improve operations, further perpetuating the water access gap.

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Addressing these challenges through mobile data collection

As poor water service delivery is caused, in part, by the limited amount of information collected and shared on the service between the various stakeholders, WSPs are testing the use of mobile-enabled data collection to improve the delivery of water services, with the support of technology companies and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). These solutions are in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 to ensure water access to all by 2030, focusing on improving the efficiency of water services through better monitoring and management. In this light, there is a strong opportunity for water stakeholders and their partners to develop innovative mobile solutions to improve water service delivery and reduce WSPs’ losses.

Between 2014 and 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development (M4D) Utilities Innovation Fund, with the support of the UK Government, funded three innovative projects tackling the issue of water service delivery by developing effective ways to collect and share information on the functionality and use of water services, where it had never been done before:

• NextDrop  in urban areas of Bangalore, India;
• Development Workshop Angola in partnership with their technology partner, SeeSaw , in peri-urban areas of Huambo, Angola; and
• Portland State University, with their partners SweetSense Inc. and Living Water International, in two rural districts of Rwanda, Ruhango and Karongi.

Based on the results of these pilots, this report highlights the ways in which mobile technology can be an efficient and adaptive tool to collect information that drives service improvement.