While the use of technology in various fields is increasing, water supply organizations and consumer committees are also adopting digital technology the country.
So far, more than 600 drinking water and consumer committees across the country have been digitized, said Subhas Pant of the Urban Development Fund. Currently, this digitized service has reached to 1.1 million households in 68 districts and about 4.6 million people have been benefited. These committees have been using software called ‘Watermark’ developed by Diyalo Technology.
Nepalese fintech company Diyalo has been developing various software and technologies for the water supply services. By using these technologies, water supply organizations are being digitalized and are becoming able to provide state-of-the-art services.
It is found that there are around 42,000 drinking water consumer organizations in Nepal. According to government data, only about 16,400 organizations are registered and 11,828 registered organizations are in operation.
Drinking Water Consumers Committee who have adopted the technology are also getting a lot of ease. Currently, more than 350,000 households are paying water bill through mobile application.
Characteristics of software and tools used in water supply services:
Meter Reading Mobile App:
With the meter reading mobile app, the due amount of individual household consumer is printed on the thermal paper at the doorsteps through the POS machine. Details of meter reading and payment are updated directly in the software from any location. With such facility, the work of meter reading and toll collection has been made quick and transparent.
Billing Management:
Billing management system is also currently in operation.This system contains all the KYC details of the customer. In this system, water tariff exemptions and fines are also well calculated. It also includes the rate of drinking water. With these information, the consumption of drinking water, income generation can easily be analyzed and the individual identity card of the customer can also be created.
SMS system:
SMS system has acted as a bridge between the customer and the committee. Previously, if a general meeting had to be held or if any information had to be conveyed to the customers, a letter had to be written to all the customers. But now, with this system, information can be communicated simultaneously between all customers through SMS.
Online payment:
Due to the online payment system, the time and cost of paying the toll has been saved for the common consumers. At present, the payment option are available through more than 60 banks and financial institutions, online payment service providers Esewa, Khalti, IME Pay.
Accounting system:
Among the various systems in the water supply sector, the accounting system is also a major system. This system is currently in operation. This system looks at all the details of the organization’s income, expenses, assets, liabilities, profit and loss, and financial conditions.
Inventory management:
Through the inventory management system, all the details such as inventory items name, quantity, inflow and outflow of stock quantity, sales return, stock consumption for repair and maintenance can be availed. It solves the possibility of waste or unnecessary stocking of the inventory.
Human Resource Management System:
This system helps in employee attendance, leave management, salary and wage management, performance evaluation etc.
Geographic Information System:
This system provides information on the geographic location of water transmission and distribution pipelines and other structures. It provides all the details about the locations where pipelines are buried for maintenance, chambers, valves, tanks, water assets like customer’s house.
Water Leakage Analysis:
This technology is currently being worked on under GSMA IF project. It mentions how much water was produced from the source, how much water was stored in the tank, how much was consumed by consumers and how much was leaked. As it gives the data of water leakage, it is easy to find out where the leakage is. Also, the technology provides the calculation of quantity of water wasted cleaning the water tank and analysis of production and consumption, etc.
Flow Management System:
It automatically measures, analyzes and communicates the quality of drinking water in different parts of the water source and distribution system. General consumers can get the water quality testing report of the water they are using through the mobile app.
Pump Control System:
The pump control system is a system that turns the pump on and off automatically. But after installing this system, no human is needed to turn the pump on and off. It automatically turns on the pump when the tank is empty and automatically turns off when the tank is full.
Customer Grievance Management:
In this system, customers can submit their complaints through the mobile application and the employees resolve the complaints. In addition, the committee can see all the details of how many and what kind of complaints have come to the organization, how many have been addressed.
Ground water level analysis:
This system analyzes how much water is under the surface of the ground, how long this water reaches, whether the water is re-accumulating in the ground or not. How much the water source is decreasing, how much water is decreasing every month, year, water is drying up or re-accumulating, so it can be predicted when the water source will dry up.
Electro Magnetic Flow Meter:
When this technology is connected to the water source, you can automatically get real-time information about how much water has been produced per second. Based on which the amount of production is analyzed and water is supplied, the system can be managed.
Tank water level measurement technique:
It can be seen how much water is in the water tank. On this basis, it makes it easy to make policies about how much to distribute, how much water to add, reduce, etc.
In the near future, Diyalo Technology will introduce systems such as smart meter technology, water source security system, water supply maintenance system, gate valve automation to make the organization of water supply sector state-of-the-art and international level.
