wash sms and indonesia water sms pilot meena palaniappan
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WASH SMS andIndonesia WATER SMS Pilot
Meena Palaniappan
Pacific Institute’s International Water and Communities Initiative -
Goals Release trapped knowledge in the water sector so that it flows to
those who need it and bubbles up from communities to support better planning and policymaking.
Improve community participation in decision making.
Promote sustainability in water and sanitation services.
Improve capacity of local governments, community support organizations, and residents.
Assist funding organizations in evaluating the most effective approaches to create sustainable change in the water sector.
The Current Need in Cities A high percentage of urban residents don’t have access to municipal water sources to meet all of their needs, and must supplement with or rely entirely upon expensive informal water sources
Rapid urbanization and inadequate infrastructure increase water insecurity
Climate change is changing where, when, and how much water falls, challenging our ability to plan
The Need for the Future
Urban poor communities need information they can use to advocate for improved service and access to drinking water
Residents need ways to communicate quickly and effectively with local government and water service providers about the current state of water supply, quality, and costs
Government and utilities need better information on community needs and the status of water resources in order provide better services, manage their water supplies, and plan for the future
WASH SMS Project Goals
To create a highly accessible, open-source communication and tracking mechanism that uses messages from mobile phones and email to develop crowd-sourced data in the form of maps and reports for communities, NGOs, water and waste water service providers, and governments agencies.
To increase the exchange and monitoring of information among communities, water and sanitation service providers, and government, in order to improve services for the urban poor in developing country cities.
Indonesia WATER SMS Pilot Project
Malang,
Java
Makassar,
Sulawesi
Project Partners:
Current Funders:Designed by:
The communities, water utilities, local
governments and NGOs in the cities of Malang
and Makassar
water civil society technology
Critical Success Factors:Technical and Social System
Design
Technical System Design
What issues are reported?What is the format for inputs?What information is needed?How do we ensure accurate reports?What kinds of outputs (dashboards) are produced?How is data stored?How is privacy protected?
Social System Design
How do we incentivize reporting?How can we ensure action is taken on reports made?How can we support key stakeholders to use the information to create change (development of Standard Procedures for report response for water utility) ?
Identifying Multiple Pathways to Impact
Learning Session FindingsInformation needs:
PDAM services, water qualityWater conservationMeter readings/rate structure
Water crisis in dry season;PDAM service on holdLack of trust/feelings of
discrimination in service provision
Lack of effective medium for sending alerts/info to customers, or sending complaints/inquiries to utility
Learning Session Findings
Residents willing to pay for up to 4 SMS messages
Updates by SMS (in addition to web) desired
Residents receptive to structured SMS format; Ujung Tanah only sub-district that preferred multiple-choice SMS format over structured; further testing is needed
Malang Focus Group Discussions
Lack of coordination between water providers, utilities, local government agencies
All are willing to share more information
All desire a communication medium to share information among water managers from improve planning
Makassar Focus Group Discussions
PDAM is aware of issues with dried reservoir, leaks in old pipe network, and independent access to water resource, but lacks resources to solve these problems quickly
Recognized across stakeholder groups that more coordination is needed
Other groups are aware of challenges PDAM faces, and want to be supportive while still holding PDAM accountable
Malang Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue
Makassar Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue
When is water coming? How much? Will there be changes in water services? When will you extend service to us? What is the quality of water? What is the current status of overall water
system? How much are people paying for water? Where are there leaks? How many boreholes are there—how far
down to groundwater?
What Information is Needed?
Provide information in an information poor environment
Create open communication channels between communities, water market, and water utilities
Better understand interconnections in the system
Help utilities better plan and extend services
Make the urban poor visible so they can’t be ignored by government and utilities
Role of Indonesia WATER SMS
NationalMinistrie
s
Funding Agencies
NGOs
Other Water Suppliers
Public
UtilityAdministration
CityGovernment
Media &Verifiers
Maps and data sets are
freely accessible online to
anyone with concern,
interest or need
SEE
REPORT
OPEN ACCESS
OPEN ACCESS
Role of Indonesia WATER SMS
WATER SMS Website
City, Utility & Verifiers respond to report and Utility works to repair…
Person sends SMS toreport
CellularNetwork
WATER SMS Server
SMSsentto…
Person has SmellyWater
Reportrelayed to...
CityGovernment
UtilityAdministration
IndependentVerifiers
Role of Indonesia WATER SMS
Responses sent directly to…
NationalMinistrie
s
Funding Agencies
NGOs
Reports & responses are displayed on website and can be viewed by…
Other Water Suppliers
Person who made initial report
Public
CellularNetwork
City, Utility & Verifiers send
their responses to…
Responses relayed to…
WATER SMS Server
CityGovernment
UtilityAdministration
IndependentVerifiers
WATER SMS Website
UtilityAdministration
CityGovernment
IndependentVerifiers
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Example of InteractionUser: Water
45171: Do you want to submit a report or request?1.Report2.Get Updates
User: 1
45171: Do you want to register your phone number with the system to follow up on this request?1.Yes 2.No
User: 1
45171: Thank you for registering. What do you want to report?1.Leak2.No water3.Dirty water4.Price paid for water
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Example of Interaction, continuedUser: 2
45171: How long have you been without water?1. 0-2 days2. 3-5 days3. 6-10 days4. More than 10 days
User: 2
45171: Where are you located (enter street name, postal code)?
User: Street A, 65122
45171: Thank you for your report.
[Note: Using a postal code to identify location may provide a spatial resolution as low as 1-2 km.]
Total # of SMS Messages: 10
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Participant Dashboards
Participant-Generated Data Analysis and Visualization
Locally Relevant Alerts and Location of Reported Problems
45171: Reports in the 65122 area for the period from 07-01-11 to 08-01-11:1. 5 leaks2. 3 water disruptions - trucks 3. 2 water disruptions - terminal4. 6 water outages – 0-2 days5. 3 water outages – 3-5 days6. 1 water outages – 6-10 days
Sent TextMessage
AccessingWebsite
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Utility Dashboard
Metrics Specific to Utilities: unresolved reports, water loss
Utility Level Reports
Utility Management
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City Government Dashboard
CityAdministration
District Summaries from Multiple Utilities and Water Boards
City Level Reports
The WASH SMS Project seeks transform the way mobile phones are used to improve water and sanitation services in Indonesia and around the world in some key ways:
– Every person can submit information– The community has access to and owns the
data along with the water utility– Democratizes decision-making on basic
services so that communities can be involved
– Brings together residents, public agencies, and the private sector to ensure water security.
What changes can this make?
Thank You
Photos throughout by: A. Darsono, Badri, F. Muslih, and M. HutchingsMeena Palaniappan, Director
International Water and Communities Initiative
For more information:
www.pacinst.org