10831 Digital Technology For Sustainable Mgt of Water Supply Services

The rural water supply in Africa has been faced many challenges for many decades. These challenges are still the main bottleneck to accelerate the attainment of SDGs. The transparent, accountable and equitable water service provision is very crucial for sustainable services. The conventional community-based management of water supply services needs to be backed by the advancement of technology. In this era, the low-cost and simple digital technology is promising on to enhance the critical bottleneck in the sector. Action Against Hunger piloted a smart-tap dispensing technology in the hard to reach and remote ASAL region of Kenya. The inclusion of digital water dispending technology in climate smart water supply project was found economically feasible and socially accepted by the community. The system created huge transparency and accountability among the user and service providers and lay the foundation of financial sustainability and equitable utilisation of the water sources among users. In a water scarce rural and peri-urban areas, the inclusion of digital technology in partnership with the private sector will ensure sustained water supply services and significantly reduces the operation, maintenance and management challenges of community-based water supply services.