Engineering Predictable Water Supply: The Humans Behind the Tech

Abstract

Although it was reported in 2012 that 89% of the world’s population had access to piped water, it is estimated that at least one billion people receive this water for fewer than 24 h per day. Intermittency places a variety of burdens upon households, including inadequate quantities of supply at the household level, unpredictability of water utilities in making water available, and a disproportionate time burden on poorer households. For many intermittent water systems, the availability of water is controlled by valvemen who turn access on/off to various portions of their service area. Using this information, NextDrop sends notifications via mobile phones to customers as to when water is likely to be available. Although a pilot of NextDrop was successfully implemented in Hubli-Dharwad in India, NextDrop faced significant challenges when expanding to Bangalore. This case study investigates how a breakdown in the information pipeline, as well as corresponding human factors, prevented adoption of NextDrop in Bangalore. Specifically, randomized controlled trials found that valvemen sent reports of their activities to NextDrop only 70% of the time. Even when NextDrop passed messages onto customers, only 38% of customers reported receiving notifications, primarily because either the household “waiters” for water, usually women, did not have daytime access to the mobile phone registered with NextDrop or the notifications are buried under the many other solicitations and informational messages regularly received via SMS. Valvemen were further studied through observation and semi-structured interviews to understand their incentives for complying with NextDrop.

Water Supply Interruptions Are Associated with More Frequent Stressful Behaviors and Emotions but Mitigated by Predictability: A Multisite Study

“…This mitigation effect was slightly lower for households who experienced the most frequent level of interruptions but doubled for households that only experienced occasional interruptions. These relationships were stronger than those reported in a study that examined the effect of text message notifications for resumption of water supply in India, 48,49 and suggest that information about supply interruptions�or the perception of predictability�may reduce associated negative emotions and stressful behaviors. These findings support further theorybuilding around potential causal relationships among water disruptions, undesirable emotions, and adaptation (or maladaptation) through coping behaviors.…”

“…Systems designed to provide information to water users about rationing schedules explicitly acknowledge the benefits of this information for users, , assuming that such knowledge can facilitate adaptation and coping by households and communities to reduce the impact of water supply interruptions. If supply interruptions are unavoidable, users may prefer a supply with a lower performance (measured strictly as hours of supply per day) but with more reliable interruptions, thus implying a theoretical “predictability premium.” Notification systems are also predicated on utilities understanding the adequacy of the water they supply, which is not always the case.…”