Evaluating Cellular Instrumentation on Rural Handpumps to Improve Service Delivery—A Longitudinal Study in Rural Rwanda

Abstract

In rural sub-Saharan Africa, where handpumps are common, 10-67% are nonfunctional at any one time, and many never get repaired. Increased reliability requires improved monitoring and responsiveness of maintenance providers. In 2014, 181 cellular enabled water pump use sensors were installed in three provinces of Rwanda. In three arms, the nominal maintenance model was compared against a "best practice" circuit rider model, and an "ambulance" service model. In only the ambulance model was the sensor data available to the implementer, and used to dispatch technicians. The study ran for seven months in 2014-2015. In the study period, the nominal maintenance group had a median time to successful repair of approximately 152 days, with a mean per-pump functionality of about 68%. In the circuit rider group, the median time to successful repair was nearly 57 days, with a per-pump functionality mean of nearly 73%. In the ambulance service group, the successful repair interval was nearly 21 days with a functionality mean of nearly 91%. An indicative cost analysis suggests that the cost per functional pump per year is approximately similar between the three models. However, the benefits of reliable water service may justify greater focus on servicing models over installation models.

Global water policy and local payment choices in rural Africa

“…Data from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Zimbabwe indicate when a rural waterpoint fails it takes between 13 and 214 days to repair, with a modal value of around one month. 11,15,[24][25][26][27] A related measure of failure is downtime by functionality on the day of a visit. A study of 453,177 rural waterpoints in 38 African countries estimates an average of one in four waterpoints is not working at any one time.…”

Using smart pumps to help deliver universal access to safe and affordable drinking water

“…For example, the SweetSense study (Section 2.2.1) highlighted the importance of battery lifethe prototype units used were designed to operate for between 6 and 12 months without maintenance. However, battery consumption was observed to be considerably higher than anticipated and reduced the 'maintenance-free' operational lifespan of the units (Nagel et al, 2015).…”

“…In comparison, a benchmark group of pumps, with a conventional maintenance strategy (i.e. that did not use operational data from the pump monitors), had a successful repair interval of approximately 152 d with a functionality mean of nearly 68% (Nagel et al, 2015). It is evident from this study that the prototype system may offer some potential to improve the operational performance of water pumps.…”

“…It was reported that the use of the water point data transmitter (WDT) system helped improve the average pump downtime (i.e. time until a successful repair was implemented) from 27 to 2·6 d (Nagel et al, 2015). The preliminary WDT trial (Thomson et al, 2012) also indicated that it might be possible to identify proactively some pump-failure mechanisms from the field data received.…”

Rural Water Collection Patterns: Combining Smart Meter Data with User Experiences in Tanzania

“…Novel Internet-of-Things connected technologies [12] on water points allow for better monitoring. Sensor-based remote monitoring has seen potential benefits to rural water supply management (investigated elsewhere, e.g., [13][14][15]). With the predicted increase in deployment of such technologies across rural sub-Saharan Africa, harnessing their longer-term monitoring capacity as done here has growing importance [16].Here, eWaterpay meters (smart meters) are used to investigate collection patterns from a PWS in a rural community in Northern Tanzania.…”