A study was carried out to identify the information needs for monitoring the evolution of the public service, among the main actors (commune, civil society, managers, etc.) of the public water service in rural areas. The results of this study reveal a list of priority information needs for monitoring the evolution of the public water service in rural areas. These identified needs are the subject of a call for proposals of ideas or innovative solutions by young people. Nine young people were selected based on the best innovative ideas proposed. A coach was selected to supervise these young people, who receive technical and material support for the drafting of start-up documents and for the realization of a pilot test of the best solution in one of the communes of the Ouémé Valley.
The innovative initiative selected for testing concerns a geolocation and alert system by SMS or email in case of water leakage or abnormal decrease of flow in the network. It is a real-time flow monitoring and alert system in a water network that will be able to send an SMS or a call in case of a leak or a sudden drop in flow. The system plans to display the history of flows and their variations on a hosted web interface and indicate areas of water leakage and facilitate the monitoring of the quantity of water in the network. The said initiative is carried by the Startup Ets Cercle d'Innovations en Informatique et Electronique made up of a group of young people.
The pilot test for the development of the system was carried out on a Village Water Supply of Itadjebou, in the commune of Sakété (South-East of Benin). The necessary material kit was made available to the start-up by the CWP-Benin.
