How can ICT initiatives be designed to improve rural water supply?

This policy briefing draws lessons on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in two rural water supply projects: The Mobile for Water (M4W) project in Uganda and the national water and sanitation monitoring system in Timor Leste, Sistema Informasaun Bee no Saneamentu (SIBS).

Research into these two case studies was carried out as part of the "Lessons from ICT projects to improve rural water supplies" project (June 2014 - July 2015) of the Making All Voices Count initiative  It found that using ICTs can make water supply more efficient, but that this only works well when ICT design takes local context and existing reporting systems into account.

In Timor Leste, one factor in the success of the water monitoring system was that it integrated electronic and paper-based reporting. In Uganda, an ICT-based monitoring system was much less successful because it used a technology that local people were not comfortable with.

ICTs on their own are not enough to make water supplies more sustainable. This needs wider reform efforts that depend on the social, political and economic forces that shape the way services are provided. [edited author abstract].

The links to the research project and full research publication are provided below.