Is silence golden? Of mobiles, monitoring, and rural water supplies

Patrick Thomson; Rob Hope; Tim Foster

doi:10.3362/1756-3488.2012.031

Is silence golden? Of mobiles, monitoring, and rural water supplies

Reliable and cost-effective monitoring of rural water supply infrastructure has long been hampered by the geographical curse of dispersed and low-income populations, and weak institutional performance. Recent advances in monitoring technology combined with mobile network expansion into rural areas has created an opportunity to bypass these seemingly intractable challenges. Mobile-enhanced technologies have the potential to produce data that is orders of magnitude richer, faster, and cheaper than that provided by traditional monitoring methods, which require costly field visits. However, more data does not equate to better data; information generated by crowd-sourced and automated systems each has its respective limitations. We propose a framework for analysing monitoring and surveillance systems, which can help assess the strengths and weaknesses of different emerging approaches. We suggest that these advancements present an opportunity to fundamentally change the way we consider and conduct rural water supply monitoring.

Breslin, E.D. (2010) ‘Rethinking hydrophilanthropy: smart money for transformative impact’, Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education 145: 65-73 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-704X.2010.00084.x≯.

Cohen, I. (2012) ‘Does it FLOW?’ [website], Water Hackathon <www.waterhackathon.org/does-it-flow/≯ [accessed 22 August 2012]. www.waterhackathon.org/does-it-flow/

Daraja (2012) ‘Why did Maji Matone fail? 3. Citizens’ engagement, risk and apathy’ [website] Daraja <http://blog.daraja.org/2012/02/why-did-majimatone-fail-3-citizens.html≯ [accessed 22 August 2012]. http://blog.daraja.org/2012/02/why-did-majimatone-fail-3-citizens.html

Falkenmark, M. (ed.) (1982) Rural Water Supply and Health, the need for a new strategy: Summary of papers and discussions from the United Nations Interregional Seminar on Rural Water Supply, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala.

Hope, R.A., Foster, T., Rouse, M. and Money, A. (2012a) ‘Harnessing mobile communications innovations for water security’, Global Policy 28 February 2012 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00164≯.

Hope, R.A., Foster, T. and Thomson, P. (2012b) ‘Reducing risks to rural water security in Africa’, Ambio July 2012 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0337-7≯.

Hutchings, M., Dev, A., Palaniappan, M., Srinivasan, V., Ramanathan, N. and Taylor, J. (2012) mWASH: Mobile Phone Applications for the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Sector, Pacific Institute & Nexleaf Analytics, Oakland, CA.

Jimenéz, A. and Pérez-Fouget, A. (2010) ‘Challenges for water governance in rural water supply: Lessons learned from Tanzania’, International Journal of Water Resources Development 26(2): 235-48 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07900621003775763≯.

JMP (2012) Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation 2012 Update [website] <www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-report-2012-en.pdf≯ [accessed 22 August 2012]. www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-report-2012-en.pdf

Kleemeier, E. (2000) ‘The impact of participation on sustainability: An analysis of the Malawi rural piped scheme program’, World Development 28(5): 929-44 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(99)00155-2≯.

Main, T. and Slywotzky, A. (2011) ‘The quiet health care revolution’, The Atlantic [website] <www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/the-quiet-healthcare-revolution/8667/≯ [accessed 22 August 2012]. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/the-quiet-healthcare-revolution/8667/

Rouse, M. (2007) Institutional Governance and Regulation of Water Services: The Essential Elements, IWA Publishing, London.

Therkildsen, O. (1988) Watering White Elephants? Lessons from Donor Funded Planning and Implementation in Tanzania, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala.

Thomson, P., Hope, R.A. and Foster, T. (2012) ‘GSM-enabled remote monitoring of rural handpumps: A proof-of-concept study’, Journal of Hydroinformatics <http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/hydro.2012.183≯.

UN Economic and Social Council (2003) General Comment 15, The right to water (Twenty-ninth session, 2002), Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN Doc. E/C.12/2002/11.

UN General Assembly (1966) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [website] <http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm≯ [accessed 22 August 2012]. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm

UN General Assembly (2010) Resolutions: 64th Session [website] <www.un.org/en/ga/64/resolutions.shtml≯ [accessed 22 August 2012]. www.un.org/en/ga/64/resolutions.shtml

UN Human Rights Council (2010) Human Rights Documents [website] <http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/alldocs.aspx?doc_id=17740≯ [accessed 22 August 2012]. http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/alldocs.aspx?doc_id=17740

World Bank (2010) World Development Indicators: Infrastructure [website] <http://data.worldbank.org/topic/infrastructure≯ [accessed 22 August 2012]. http://data.worldbank.org/topic/infrastructure