mWater’s work with the World Bank in Zimbabwe
Interview by Amanda Gibbins
Ireen Mangoro and Elvis Mupfiga work for the World Bank in Zimbabwe. They are involved in the Zimbabwean government’s efforts to map dams in the country, and worked with mWater to facilitate this. They were kind enough to take the time to talk with us about their work, and their experience with the mWater training session in Zimbabwe.
Would you mind telling me a bit more about the work that you've been doing in Zimbabwe?
Ireen Mangoro
The government of Zimbabwe, represented by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development (MLAWF&RD) requested Technical Assistance support from the World Bank to develop a Multi Criteria Decision Model Tool for them (now named the Dam Rehabilitation Prioritisation (DRP Tool) in order to assess dams and prioritize funding.
Historically the country relied on water storage dams to ensure water and food security and for production of hydropower. It currently has about 10,000+ dams.
The DRP Tool was developed by the World Bank in close collaboration with MLAWF&RD. The Ministry was represented by:
Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), which is in charge of raw water in Zimbabwe
Department of Irrigation
Agricultural Rural Development Advisory Services Directorate (ARDAS) which provides technical advice to rural farmers on what crops to plant and the correct seasons
Environmental Management Agency whose role is water quality monitoring.
The tool was based on multiple criteria which included:
technical - dam hazard risks, technical conditions and potential for development
potential productive uses including in agricultural systems (crop, livestock, fisheries)
institutional - dam management factors
social and environmental - climate vulnerabilities of dams
Data to test the tool was collected from thirty sample dams (small, medium & large) identified from the seven catchment councils around the country. The Bank with support from the government collected this data using an Excel spreadsheet. This exercise was conducted during covid times, and training of the client on how to use the tool was online. Through online training, participants learnt to upload the data collection template onto their mobile devices for field data collection. They also learnt to access the form for desk data collection using Kobo ToolBox.
To harmonize and pilot existing data collection tools using existing KOBO forms, the Government of Zimbabwe and the World Bank agreed to design and develop a dashboard that can easily display data. This was for DRPT usage but also for other purposes (dam safety, asset inventory, assessing infrastructure at risk in case of a disaster, etc). The tool would be a Management Information System (MIS) to map all dams and their characteristics, along with relevant environmental, climatological, and hydrological data that have an impact on dams or irrigation systems. This is how mWater came on board.
Maybe Elvis you can come in and clarify more.
Elvis Mupfiga
Hi. So thank you Ireen for the very nice and I think elaborate description of the work that I've been doing so far.
The task now was to build the management information system to collect information on dams and irrigation infrastructure in Zimbabwe. The emphasis was no longer just on dam rehabilitation practices, but day to day management of dams and irrigation facilities in Zimbabwe.
mWater offers a platform which is way more comprehensive than Kobo which we had been using. With mWater we can do visualizations, we are able to analyze the data. And also it has data collection capability. So that’s when we engaged mWater to work with us on this project.
Could you tell me more about the training that mWater organized in Zimbabwe?
Ireen Mangoro
We had a very high level session of facilitation, with an amazing team of facilitators. The Ugandan facilitators managed to convey the workshop objectives in a simple and conscious manner. I would say kudos to the team, they did a good job. From my own experience, what I learned from the training was that the mWater tool is much more flexible, compared to the Kobo toolbox. Collection of data was made easy, including collaboration of different teams using the same tool and the mWater dashboard is easy to use online and offline.
What I also found interesting about the training was the application features, things like the data images, including the ability to manage users. From the training, it was clear data collectors and data validators found this dashboard easy to use. The dashboard clearly visualized results in detail.. I thought this was really great.
Elvis Mupfiga
I think the training was good. We learnt a lot, to the extent that we are now planning to cascade the training to other parts of Zimbabwe. It also involved a lot of practical work, not just the theory. We managed to go out into the field and actually fill out the dam form, and the irrigation form. Everyone got a taste of how to do it, so now people are quite comfortable using the platform.
Could you tell me about your experience of data security on mWater
Ireen Mangoro
Yes, in fact the government was quite concerned about data privacy. mWater assured the client that control was through setting of different permissions for individual users, more defined rights for different levels (Collectors, viewers, validators). Experience from the field meant the client understood that it's a very safe platform to use for keeping data.
Elvis Mupfiga
Just to add on to what Ireen has said, I think the fact that mWater is being used by a number of organizations in countries around the world gave some confidence. mWater takes privacy issues so seriously, and in Zimbabwe we can no-one is able to access the platform or data unless the managerial team has given them access to the data.
Ireen Mangoro
One more point is the contract between the World Bank and mWater really emphasizes data privacy issues. And because the government has worked with the World Bank on a number of projects I am sure they found comfort from this.
What future uses do you see for mWater in Zimbabwe?
Elvis Mupfiga
Before they came to Zimbabwe, mWater didn't have sites in their platform for dams or irrigation. So these are things that mWater actually created here. I think mWater has got a lot of scope, a lot of different things can continue to be added and managed. I think it will keep on evolving, and we can continue adding new levels of management in our infrastructure related to water.
Ireen Mangoro
Like Elvis is saying, mWater is a very good tool, and there are a lot of opportunities in Zimbabwe which can be built onto. For example, we have the WASH department built within the Ministry of Water. The department is collecting Rural WASH data through the Rural Information Management System (RWMS) online Tool. In urban areas there are a number of boreholes being drilled in planned and unplanned settlements. There are wells in the urban settings and unplanned toilets coming up, some of them connected and some not connected to the sewer system. So mWater can actually assist the department of WASH to efficiently and effectively map and collect WASH infrastructure data from these urban settlements.