Want to find safe, clean water in Zanzibar? Just Google it

Zanzibar’s water sector is to benefit from two initiatives by UN-Habitat and Google.

In the first initiative, President Amani A. Karume of Zanzibar and UN-Habitat executive director Anna Tibaijuka last month jointly launched a five-year business plan for the Zanzibar Water Authority.

The second initiative saw UN-Habitat and Internet giant Google enter a partnership aimed at improving services offered by the water utility.

The African Development Bank will fund the project to the tune of $65 million.

Speaking at the launch ceremony held at State House Zanzibar, President Karume thanked Dr Tibaijuka for the support UN-Habitat has accorded his government and noted the need to scale up joint efforts to protect water sources, including wetlands and forests.

Among the components to be addressed are institutional development in the water and sanitation sector, improvements in urban water supply and sanitation, as well as water resource management.

UN-Habitat will also offer the Zanzibar water sector technical assistance for procurement and project management, support for the development of a water demand management strategy and a sanitation concept design for Unguja and Pemba, as well as the development of a water resources monitoring strategy.

President Karume noted that this enhanced level of co-operation would require a more visible presence for UN-Habitat in Zanzibar and direct participation by his country at global events such as the World Urban Forum.

Mrs Tibaijuka said UN-Habitat will support the Ministry of Water, Construction, Lands and Energy at the forthcoming Forum.

On the conservation efforts in Zanzibar’s Stone Town, Mrs Tibaijuka said UN-Habitat will facilitate exchange programmes with the city of Barcelona to enable officials from Zanzibar to learn more about the preservation and management of ancient sites.

The UN body will also through the Water for African Cities Programme undertake pilot initiatives in rainwater harvesting and support the energy sector in Zanzibar to identify alternative sources of energy that will reduce the cost of pumping water.

The UN-Habitat and Google partnership on the other hand, aims at improving access to information on water coverage, assessing the level of satisfaction by customers and evaluating efficiency in the delivery of services by the authority.

The initiative is experimenting with the use of mobile phone networks to report faults in water supply systems and track efficiency in maintenance response through a web-based information system.

Inaugurating the project in Makadara location, Dr Anna Tibaijuka urged residents to make good use of the water facilities and ensure they are well maintained.

In the first phase of the project, a total of 50 water points have been constructed in schools, hospitals and other public facilities in the western part of Unguja Island.

The partnership between Google and UN-Habitat will establish citizen-based participatory monitoring techniques to support and empower targeted communities.

It has developed new systems for collection of geo-referenced data that is ranked according to gender and socio-economic groups, and supported by information on the health and environmental status of the target groups and project areas.

It has also established a system of benchmarking service providers not only to improve service coverage and efficiency, but also to enhance accountability to customers.

Data collection and monitoring is an essential tool in tracking progress towards the achievement of the water and sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals.

In addition to helping policy- and decision-makers to improve their performance, it also provides communities with information that will empower them to demand better services.