Practical Action Bangladesh

Mobile enabled platform to deliver water and sanitation municipal services

Grantee Details

Name of project: 1Service: Mobile enabled platform to deliver water and sanitation municipal services
Project location: Bangladesh
Type of grant: Seed
Grant awarded: October 2017
Partners: Robi Axiata

The purpose of the grant is to launch a mobile based utility services platform in partnership with Practical Action Bangladesh, Robi Axiata Ltd and municipalities that will use mobile technology to provide improved water and sanitation related utility services to the residents of the municipalities. This platform will give customers convenience to request for municipal services using their mobile phones and pay using Robi cash mobile wallet.

Resources

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Testimonial

“With tele-penetration of 83% and internet penetration of 45%, Bangladesh is well poised to meet its vision of turning the country into a Digital one. In this backdrop, our M4D utilities project makes very effective use of digital service delivery mechanism to deliver municipality service leveraging on the strength and availability of the telecom infrastructure. The digital solution is envisaged to create job opportunity for the water, sanitation and hygiene-related service providers while strengthening the local governance framework, in the process. We are very confident that, going forward, this project will also facilitate accelerated socio-economic development at the local level in the country.”- CEO, Robi Axiata

“Practical Action has years of exclusive experience in implementing city-wide Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) services. We have introduced e-FSM services through which, anyone can request for pit emptying services using a web application and a dedicated call centre. Building on this, we are launching 1Service application in affiliation with Robi Axiata ltd., one of the largest telecom operators in the country. 1Service digitally offers an integrated municipal utility services including, but are not limited to, water supply, sanitation, waste management and FSM in 3 cities, ensuring customer satisfaction.

1Service allows the low-income population, including slum dwellers, to avail the services at an affordable cost. We see the enormous potentials of this initiative to reach the citizens of all the municipalities and city corporations to access improved utility services. We believe that our unique effort will bring a visible contribution to the Government’s vision on digital Bangladesh. GSMA deserves appreciation for supporting this noble venture.” – Hasin Jahan, Country Director Practical Action Bangladesh.