eWATER is a technology company that provides a sustainable solution to collecting user fees for water systems maintenance through mobile money payments and IoT-connected taps. Their system has provided clean water to 12,000 people in Gambia. They are working to scale up operations in Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda by replacing broken taps and installing new systems. Their goal is to install 100,000 taps serving 10 million people within 5 years.
Mobile tech transforms water access in developing nations
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eWATER
Using mobile technology for the accountable collection of user fees to pay for the maintenance of water
supply systems forever.
Why is it needed?
1.5 billion people still don’t have access to clean water within a 30-minute round trip of their home. 65%
of installed water systems reak within the first two years because there is no method of maintaining them.
The 2016 WASH International Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI) evaluation report on the £700 million of
DFID spend between 2011 and 2015, says:
“DFID does not apply a consistent approach for measuring value for money across its WASH portfolio, nor
does it have credible benchmarks to help it to identify more or less efficient programmes
DFID has no systematic evidence to demonstrate whether its WASH results are in fact being
sustained after its funding ends.
DFID, theWorld Bank, UNand many NGOs are awareof this problem. WASH advisors know that the current
model relies too much on unreliable water committees to collect user fees and carry out maintenance and
most of the time there is nepotism and weak governance, so systems are not maintained and they
eventually break.
eWATER provides a sustainable, proven solution to this by using NFC enabled taps, Internet of Things, and
mobile technology to ensure the transparent and accountable collection of user fees that pay for 100% of
water system. eWATER will completely transform the water supply sector delivery model and solve the
intractable problem of how to collect user fees for sustainable Operation and Maintenance (O&M) for all
water supply systems.
Progress
For the last year, using £300,000 of private money and £150,000 of M4D/DFID grant, 12,000 people have
purchased affordable cleanwater in the upper river regions of TheGambia using this completely innovative
technology. 85% of all fees have been used to pay local professional maintenance providers to service the
systems.
eWATER are working with DFID in Tanzania on the Frontier Technology Programme to serve a further
50,000 people in two Districts. The World Bank is requesting a huge scale up of operations to begin in the
Summer of 2017 to deliver a further 1,500 taps urgently required to replace the 41,000 broken taps
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identified by theTanzanian Water Ministry. eWATER arealso looking to expand into Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya
and Uganda.
Co-Founder, Alison Wedgwood received Special Recognition at the Women4Technology awards, Mobile
World Congress, Barcelona. In addition, eWATER was runner up in the Internet of Things 4YFN, GSMA
competition, beating over 300 other competitors. And eWATER has a published piece in The Economist
(28th February 2017)
How it works
eWATER fully integrates three technologies: Mobile money, Internet of Things and NFC to provide clean,
low-cost, 24/7 accessible water. eWATER’sproprietary patented technology platform enables transparent,
accountable collection of user fees at the point of use, as well as operation and cloud based live monitoring
for rural or urban water supplies. By eliminating the need to handle cash, eWATER cuts out nepotism,
misuse of funds and the reliance on village water committees, and ensures water systems are
professionally maintained for a very affordable amount per person.
Additional benefits of eWATER that align with DFID’s goals are:-
Time saved for woman and girls collecting water is 5 hours per household per day because taps
are located 100 metres from the home
The villagers trust paying via mobile money – they are happy to pay as they know it is fair
It is a low cost product, therefore multiple taps can be installed across a village resulting in less
distance required tocarry heavy buckets and more timeavailable for the children toattend school.
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Water wastage drops 99%; people don’t spill a drop when paying for it. This has profound
implications for climate change in drought prone countries, and also reduces stagnant water
puddles which minimises the breeding grounds for mosquitos, reducing malaria.
Jobs are createdthrough professional maintenance companies.
eWATERcare guaranteeing sustainability
Water credit can be purchased using eWATERpay. Anyone in the village with a smartphone can
become a seller by purchasing bulk water credit using our integrated mobile money platform.
Anyone without a smartphone can then purchase water credit from the seller by touching their
tag to the sellers’ phone.
The tags can then operate an eWATERtap by using NFC technology to dispense the water when
the tag is touched on the tap.
The eWATERtap is connected to eWATERcare, via the Internet of Things global network, which
allows us to capture and process huge volumes of data on functionality, flow rates, sales, allowing
us to tailor our proposition topeoples’ real needs and ensure regular maintenance and repairs are
always carried out within 12 hours of a server alert.
Aims
eWATER’s goal is to have installed 100,000 taps within the next 5 years, providing a sustainable source of
clean water to 10 million people, and creating jobs for over 500 people in-country.
There is potential for eWATER to transform the lives of millions of people rapidly and scale up rapidly.
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Figure 1 – Gross profit, people served for the next 5 years
Operations and Partnerships
eWATERtaps are currently manufactured in the UK and cost approximately $500 per tap. They can be
installed on any gravity fed water system and are most commonly being used to replace broken taps in
solar and diesel piped rural networks.
Any organisation can purchase eWATERtaps and we will work with them to help them install the system.
In particular, we need to ensure that the organisation using eWATER is able to manage directly, or
subcontract, the maintenance and repairs of the water supply systems when the collected user fees are
given to them. We then work with the implementing organisation so that they understand the Service
Level Agreements and train them in the use of our eWATERcare monitoring and maintenance dashboard.
This means that maintenance becomes an easy proposition because information on the system, the tap
functionality, leaks in the pipes, when regular maintenance is needed etc. is easily available for the local
maintenance companies. Once established in country, it actually becomes a very simple procedure to
monitor the eWATERtaps live in the field and ensure that maintenance is done. The crucial difference here
compared to most developing country water supply models is that by collecting user fees without
corruption and revenue leakage there is enough money available to pay for professionally trained local
technicians to maintain the borehole, the pumps, the pipes and taps etc. We arecurrently setting up new
operations with Water Aid, Water Mission and DFID in Tanzania.
eWATER then hands over 85% of all tap revenue from water sales to the O&M organisation less a $5 per
tap per month service fee to pay for the IOT Any Net communication network which sends the data back
from the taps via any GSM roaming service.
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Millionsofpeopleserved
Millionsofdollars Sales& Costs Forecast
Gross Profit People served (million)
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eWATER Service Costs Value
eWATERpay money handling fees 15% of revenue from water sales
eWATERcareservice fees $5 / tap / month
In East Africa, eWATER are working with Davis & Shirtliff, the leading supplier of water related equipment
in theEast African region, who will also be working alongside Water Aid and DIFD toensure theprofessional
management and maintenance of the water systems once they have been installed. Davis & Shirtliff
currently operate in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda and Ethiopia with over 50 wholesale, retail and
maintenance operations.
Within Gambia, eSU have been managing the operations and maintenance of all of the eWATER taps and
water systems for the past year.
Route to scale
eWATER requires donors and government agencies to use eWATER technology when investing in water
supply programmes, by either repairing old broken systems systems (approximately 50% of installed solar
and diesel pumped piped networks are broken), or installing new ones. Approximately, $500m per year is
currently spent globally on trying to provide people across the world with access to clean water by
international donors, NGOs and National Governments. Historically, this has typically focussed on installing
hand pump systems. However, there has recently been quite a strong switch to installing solar pumping
systems – Oxfam International have recentlyadopted a new policy of Solar First. Oxfam evaluatedthe costs
and benefits of solar piped networks, , compared to handpumps, designed 30 years ago and with a poor
track record for reliability and decided that there were considerable benefits using solar systems, allowing
the installation of many taps in a village, compared to just one handpump on one borehole. In particular,
the time savings for girls and woman collecting water were assessed to be 5 hours per day when the taps
are located within 100 metres of the home.
This direction away from hand pumps coincides with eWATERs method of providing a closed loop of
sustainability. eWATERs current customer base consists of the Department for International Development
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(DFID), Water Aid and the World Bank, and conversations arealso in place with Water Mission, Water.Org,
Care International, USAID and UNICEF.
For the scale up of the manufacture and access to sales channels, eWATER is looking for a partner who
aligns well with eWATERs values. eWATER have had numerous meetings with German company Lorentz,
the World’s largest manufacturer of solar powered water pumping, currently active in over 130 countries
through a dedicated network of professional partners, and have also started conversations with Pentair, a
global water, fluid, thermal management and equipment protection partner, and Orbit, a large
manufacturing business located in the UK.
Our management
Alison Wedgwood - CEO
Alison Wedgwood, has 18 years’ experience as a water and sanitation economist and international
development. In 1996, she began by working for the Department of International Development (DFID) in
the Delhi Water and Sanitation Office and since then she has worked in over 20 countries designing
implementing and evaluating water and sanitation projects for DFID, UNICEF, JBIC and the World Bank.
Alison is passionate about integrating modern technology and business practices and encouraging female
entrepreneurs to improve the sustainability of rural water supply systems.
Rob Hygate - COO
Rob is an entrepreneur who has worldwide experience with starting, growing, selling and acquiring digital
and technology companies. Hehas a degreein Microelectronics from theUniversity of the West of England,
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and has been involved in a wide range of industries including technology, property and finance. Following
a trip to The Gambia ten years ago he became passionate about solving the problem of rural water supply.
He doesn’t have an “aid” background, and so his approach is grounded in what works – innovation,
technology, financial cost recovery and a professional commercial approach.
Ian Evans - CTO
Ian has an extensive background in electronic and software design. He previously founded and run a
successful design and manufacturing company for over 10-years that specialised in producing unique and
innovative RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) readers with ultra-low power features for embedding in
almost any application. This included designing bespoke water and electricity metering products and
embedding NFC reader technologies for emerging new markets. Ian brings a wealth of real-world
Mechanical, Electronic and Software engineering experience to the eWATER team and the passion to
innovate ideas into reality.
Tom Wedgwood – Senior advisor
Tom Wedgwood, Co-Founder of Newton Europe who implement transformational, award-winning change
across a wide range of sectors. (www.NewtonEurope.com) Tom is responsible for leading and developing
the company's innovative business approach, intellectual property and best practice. Tom was awarded
the Institute of Civil Engineering Queen's Jubilee Scholarship at Cambridge University and won the Roscoe
Prize for achieving the top degreeof his year. Tom focuses on ensuring our programmes arefinancially and
technically sustainable and economically efficient delivering maximum impact per pound spent.
Dr Jessica Sharpe – Financial, marketing and water quality support
Jess Sharpe completed a PhD in Chemical Engineering, Mathematics and Chemistry at the University of
Bath, following a degreein NaturalScience. She has spent the past 2 years as a Senior Consultant focussing
on improvement across a number of different businesses within the retail sector, and is now using her
experience to assist eWATER in the finances and marketing, as well as using her Chemistry expertise to
support in the analysis of the water quality.
Alex Gordon Lennox – In country projectmanagement
Alex graduatedfrom Bristol University with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and since then spent time
working across a number of industries in both Kenya and the UK. Alex has worked with the charity
bikes4Africa aiming to find simple solutions to common failures of bicycles in The Gambia, and performed
research into NFC technology while working in the security industry. Alex is now using this experience to
project managethe installation of 200 taps in Tanzania.
RufusCollier – Productdesign management
Rufus is a change management consultant who has spent the majority of his career working with Newton
Europe, doing everything from increasing patient throughput through NHS hospitals to reducing delays &
saving the taxpayer money on national Defence projects through process innovation and people focussed
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organisational culture change. Rufus is using his change management expertise to support in the
management of the product design.