GSMA Supports Mobile Monitoring And Evaluation In Ghana With New Grant

Safe Water Network is pleased to announce an exciting new initiative to expand Safe Water Network’s monitoring and evaluation system in Ghana. This 17-month project, made possible by a £150,000 grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Programme, seeks to demonstrate and quantify the operational efficiencies gained by implementing a mobile monitoring system of Safe Water Stations. 

Since its founding in 2006, Safe Water Network has focused on solving the twin challenges of drinking water quality and sustainability. At the core of our work is the Safe Water Station, which houses water treatment equipment that produces reliable, safe water that meets or exceeds local and WHO water quality standards.  Each Station is owned and operated locally, and run like a small business to meet consumer needs for affordable, dependable safe water without reliance on ongoing charitable support.  

 This seed grant will test the use of mobile data collection to improve both the monitoring of water points and response to maintenance issues for better water service delivery to small towns and peri-urban Ghanaian communities. 

Remote monitoring puts accurate financial and operational information in the hands of a trained operator in real time, who can then take immediate action and prevent an easy to fix issue from becoming a costly and time-consuming problem.  Remote monitoring also reduces the costs of serving hard to reach communities by decreasing the time it takes to respond to a technical issue. This is particularly important in Ghana, where we serve over 50 rural communities. “Mobile monitoring will be a key driver of sustainably serving more people with safe water. The GSMA’s grant to Safe Water Network allows us to develop a fully integrated mobile monitoring and response system for our Safe Water Stations, providing greater operational oversight at a lower cost.  We believe mobile monitoring will play a critical role in improving the operations and reducing the costs of water service delivery for millions in need,” says Kurt Soderlund, CEO of Safe Water Network. 

Safe Water Network’s long-term objective is to define and demonstrate a model for sustainable community water supply that can be adopted and replicated by other, larger implementing organizations. Improved efficiency in service delivery to facilitate Safe Water Network’s operations at scale through mobile data collection will be a component of an adoptable model for other organizations to replicate at national and regional scale.