CityTaps: Running water in urban areas

Project begin: 03/06/2015

To help solve the problem of water scarcity, Grégoire Landel created a prepayment service bringing water to urban dwellers who do not have access to running water at home.

Leading organisation: CityTaps

Covered Countries: Niger

Theme: Hydrology

Sub-themes: Access to water, Urban areas, Water scarcity and quality

Tag: #Africa

Selection: 2020/2021

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Goudel, Niamey, Niger. A smart meter installed by CityTaps in the Goudel district of Niamey, Niger, and a mobile phone. On the screen of the phone is listed the various services provided by Orange Money, including that of the Société d'Exploitation des Eaux du Niger (SEEN), ‘SEEN Prépayé’. This enables users to prepay their utility bills using their phones. The system of smart meters that SEEN has established here in partnership with CityTaps enables people to pay for their water consumption on a pay-as-you-go basis using mobile devices. Residents have gained access to clean drinking water at home at a lower cost than they would otherwise pay, utilising a pre-payment system that has been adapted to the norm of irregular incomes among the underprivileged urban population.

Gregoire Landel, creator of CityTaps

Sofiane Amadou, a resident of the Goudel neighbourhood in Niamey, Niger, checks his water meter reading on his mobile phone. Using this platform, he can prepay his bill and thereby self-regulate his water consumption in line with what he can afford.

An estimated one billion urban dwellers lack access to clean running water in their home. Many cannot pay monthly bills and high upfront connection costs due to their irregular incomes. Substitutes such as public water points, delivery services and chlorine pills can be up to 15 times more expensive and are often of low quality and unreliable. Women and girls are most affected, spending over 200 million hours fetching water every day.

Reaching more people, reinforcing existing infrastructure

To bring running water to urban homes, Grégoire Landel created CityTaps as a solution that bridges the gap between water utility companies and the urban poor. This prepayment service comprises the world’s only smart and prepaid water meter and billing software (CTSuite). Beneficiaries use mobile money to prepay for running water with any mobile phone, at any time, for any amount. As well as dramatically improving the health and finances of city dwellers, the solution also helps utility companies become financially independent and invest in infrastructure to improve supply.

During the pilot project in Niger from 2016 to 2019,1,325 water connections were equipped with the CityTaps system, reaching 13,250 people. By 2022, Grégoire and his team want to scale to other countries, impacting 2 million people around the world.

More information about CityTaps?

www.citytaps.org