Presentation by mWater at the 2022 Colorado WASH Symposium on the development of the draft version of the open source data standard that will support mWater asset management features.

1. Development of a global asset
management data standard for
water systems
• Colorado WASH Symposium – March 11, 2022
• John Feighery / mWater

2. Background:The evolution of water
management in international development
Centralized planning and
management
• National governments and
donors invest in large scale
urban and rural water
infrastructure
• Not enough investment in
institutional capacity for
operations and maintenance
• Many systems fall into
disrepair and financial distress
Decentralized community
management
• Donors and NGOs invest in
low-tech community self
supply, such as improved
springs and hand pumps to
meet MDGs
• Operations and maintenance
delegated to volunteer water
user associations and local
government
• Poor service quality leads to
unwillingness to pay user fees
Professionalized
management
• National governments devolve
responsibility to regional or
district water authorities
• Operations and maintenance
performed by public utility,
regional umbrella utility, or
professional service provider
• Emphasis on piped water onto
premises to meet SDG6

3. Water data needs become more complex
with professionalized management
Centralized planning and
management
Decentralized community
management
Professionalized
management
• Paper-based records by
national ministries of
health and water
• Water point mapping
• Once-off project-driven
data collection
• Repositories of
spreadsheets
• Infrastructure asset
management
• Geographic information
systems
• Billing and revenue
collection
• Maintenance work orders
• Accounting and finance
• Customer service

4. Why asset management?
• 3X increase in capital investment
needed to meet SDG6 targets
• Perception ofWASH as high-risk by
investors and banks
• High levels of non-revenue water
• High rates of non-functionality due
to poor maintenance
• Lack of public confidence leads to
investment in private self-supply,
increasing inequality
Definition of asset management:
the coordinated activity of an
organization to realize value
from its assets
Benefits of asset management:
• Improved financial performance
• Informed asset investment
decisions
• Managed risk
• Improved services and outputs
(ISO 55000)

5. Current practice/standards
• Standards exist (ISO 55000, IAM,AWWA)
but require specialized expertise to
interpret and implement
• Large, well-performing utilities design and
build asset management systems in-house
using GIS and engineering software
• Commercial firms provide very capable but
costly asset management software to
municipalities, using proprietary data
models (ArcGISWater, CityWorks,
WaterGEMS)
• Free software (EPANET, QGIS) is poorly
maintained and limited in capabilities
$0
$2,000
$4,000
$6,000
$8,000
$10,000
$12,000
$14,000
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
5-Year
Total
Cost
for
Software
Feature Score
Engineering
design tools
Hydraulic
analysis tools
Free and open
source software GAP
Market analysis for piped water management software

6. mWater experience with asset management data
systems
• Haiti national water information
system
• Afar and Somali RegionalWater
Bureaus (Ethiopia)
• Kitui County water asset data
system (Kenya)
• Malawi national water asset
inventory
• Water system management
features co-developed with
WaterAid (used in Myanmar and
Uganda)
• 120,000+ users in 180+ countries
using mWater
Water point
monitoring
Water asset
monitoring
Piped water
network
management

7. Common problems with water asset data
• Long lists of questions, including non-asset data on service
delivery and management practices
• Overwhelming for field staff to collect and update data
Too much detail
• Poorly defined fields and too many free text answers
• Field staff don’t have the data they need to plan and carry out
maintenance
Too little detail
• Survey forms with repeating question groups
• Difficult to find and analyze data
Complex data
structures

8. Methodology for developing the standard
• Analyzed database of over 1200 individual data fields from
previous mWater asset management projects
• Reviewed international standards (ISO 55000 series), public
guides (IAM, AWWA,WERF, USA EPA CUPSS, IRCWASH
asset registry tool), and proprietary systems (ESRI,
CitiWorks)
• Gathered stakeholder input in Haiti from DINEPA, utilities,
and USAIDWater and Sanitation Project
• Standardized field names, matched similar data, removed
non-asset data (e.g. service delivery), developed definitions
and standard choice lists
• Written draft standard reviewed by water sector
professionals
• Public comment (starting now!)
1200 fields! ~300
potential
attributes

9. Features of the standard
• Open source (CC BY-SA 4.0 “share-alike” license) – anyone can use
or adapt the standard, even for commercial purposes
• Platform-agnostic – any technology or database can implement the
standard, even a spreadsheet
• Varying levels of complexity – from water points up to large surface
water treatment plants
• Flexible hierarchy – any asset can be a parent or a child of another
asset, allowing organizations to decide how best to organize their
asset portfolio

10. Asset classes and types
System Facility Vertical Horizontal Natural
Asset classes:
Asset types:
Water
system
Water
facility
Source Pump Tank Power Pipe Canal Reservoir
River or
stream
Treatment Meter Electrical Valve Aquifer
Riparian
zone
Hydrant Junction
Sampling
point
Sensor
Infiltration
zone
Forest
Analyzer Structure
Water
point
Other Wetland
Water-
shed

11. Asset attributes
• Attributes are fields with specific
data
• Many attributes are choice lists
with defined options
• Attributes can be conditional,
meaning they are only asked if a
condition is satisfied
Type 2
Type 1
All types
---- ---- ----
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-- -- ----
-- - - --- - -
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-- - - --- - -
-- -- - --- -----
-- - - --- - -
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Groups: Attributes:
General
Attributes
Type-
specific
Attributes
…
----- ----
-- - ----- ----- --
-- -- - --- --- ----

12. Asset hierarchies
Water System
Intake
Valve
Pipe
Tank
Pipe
Water System
Raw water
intake
Intake
Valve
Pipe
Reservoir
Tank
Pipe
Simple listing
(no hierarchy)
Facilities / Assets
(two-levels of hierarchy)

13. Implementation in mWater
• All water points and water systems can use the
new asset management attributes contained in
the standard
• Organizations can customize their own asset
management system by selecting which
attributes they want to use
• Initial translations to French and Spanish planned;
mWater partners welcomed to assist with
additional languages
• All asset data can be viewed and edited in the
mWater app, online and offline
• Each asset has a landing page with a clickable tree
displaying sub-assets

14. Next steps: mWater tools for service
providers
Meter reading
Accounting Work orders
• Read bulk and service
meters for billing and non-
revenue water reduction
• Flexible workflows for
operations, maintenance,
and inspections
• In-app reference
documents and drawings
• Chart of accounts, balances,
and expense tracking
• Set tariffs and manage
customer accounts

15. Join us!
The draft standard is available for review and comment.
Go to:
https://go.mwater.co/draftstandard
Please keep in mind:
• The standard is focused on the asset management needs of
water service providers.While it can be useful in sector
monitoring, donor reporting, or service delivery, these
functions would require additional data that is not part of an
asset management system.
• Comments with specific suggestions (e.g. from->to language)
are more likely to be considered than general comments (e.g.
“not enough details about pumps…”).
• The standard is governed by mWater, but anyone is free to use
or adapt it under the open source license.