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Herald Correspondent

AS a result of improved functionality of water points, girls and women now don’t have to travel long distances to fetch water at alternative sites.

This means they have more time available to attend to their education, economic activities or family obligations.

The Government, with support from UNICEF, developed a mobile-to-web-based monitoring system which captures and stores water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) information in real time, using RapidPro.

The Rural WASH Information Management System (RWIMS) provides quick access to current data on rural WASH infrastructure.

This work has been supported by WASH programme and ICT teams in Zimbabwe.

The innovation has been lauded for improving response time to address service delivery constraints at water collection points including information such as the functionality of the water supply system, groundwater levels and water quality.

RWIMS was established by the Government in collaboration with UNICEF and SNV Netherlands Development Organisation with funding support from UK Aid, the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) and the Government of Sweden.

Laylee Moshiri, UNICEF Zimbabwe Representative, says: “We are excited at being selected for the Million Lives Club award and commend the excellent work of Zimbabwe’s WASH National Action Committee for its effort in establishing RWIMS.”

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, Engineer Tinayeshe Mutazu, says of the system: “As an official member of the Million Lives Club, the Government of Zimbabwe looks forward to continue supporting RWIMS and take this initiative to higher levels.”

The Million Lives Club is an initiative inspired by members of the International Development Innovation Alliance and supported by a growing partnership of leading development organisations.

It seeks to nurture innovation ecosystems by recognising innovators and social entrepreneurs whose innovations have scaled to serve one million customers or are rapidly approaching this milestone.

The Government and UNICEF have become an official members of the Million Lives Club, an initiative that celebrates innovators and social entrepreneurs who are scaling up impact and improving the lives of those living on less than US$5 a day.

“The SMS-based RWIMS interface enables communities to report changes in the infrastructure functionality by text messages directly delivered to government representatives”, says the UNICEF Zimbabwe Representative.

“This allows for quick responses to problems that arise at community water points, such as the breakdown of a bush pump,” she explains.