Manual drilling of a new borehole using the SHIPO jetting technology
Deepening a well using the Mzuzu Drilling - tube bailer - technology
Training in Rope pump production
Wire cement tank construction to harvest rainwater
Upgrading a well with a Rope pump
Infiltrating run off water using the tube recharge
Irrigation through use of a Rope pump and low-cost drip tubes
Water filters to ensure water quality at household level

Training the local private sector in
Simple, Market based, Affordable, and Repairable Technologies

The SMART Centre Group

The SMART Centre Group is a group of SMART centres. These Centres are located in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Niger, and Nicaragua. These centres are coordinated by MetaMeta and apply the so called SMART approach which is a combination of:

Innovation. market-based and low cost technologies (SMARTechs)
Training. Build local capacity (women and men) in technical and business skills
Self-supply. Reach the unserved with subsidies, others to invest themselves

With funds of the Dutch-government this approach was recently evaluated by IRC wich indicated that this approach reaches the SDG6.1 target group in small rural communities that are not reached with other delivery models and that it contribute to SDGs for Poverty, Food, Gender and Climate.

Also with a cost of $25/ person for CapEx, reaching SDG6.1 in these situation is 2 to 6 times less than reaching this target group with the conventional approach. The potential of the SMART approach is proven in several African countries and experiences and potential of self-supply is described in the book “Self-supply” and based on decades of field experience with failures but increasingly also success.

Our main principles are:

Quality in technologies

Most SMARTechs are simple but a hard lesson learned is; “Simple is not easy”. Details are important. Products disseminated via a SMART Centre need to be technically sound and approved by the SMART Centre Group.

Quality in training and management

Manuals for and trainers in production, installation etc. should be of good quality. Good management is essential and a SMART Centre should generate income and become self sustaining.

Cooperation

A SMART Centre cooperates with a local partner in each country, agrees with the vision and mission of the SMART Centre Group and cooperates with the other members.

To become a member of the SMART Centre Group, conditions apply;

Recording of the Virtual Side Event UN Water – ‘Supporting Self supply’ – 23 March 2023

SMART WaSH Solutions in times of Corona from TheWaterChannel on Vimeo.

Highlights

Presence at Stockholm World Water Week

The SMART Centre Group will join this year's Stockholm World Water Week, to take place fron 24 - 28 August at the Waterfront Centre in Stockholm. Together with the Jacana SMART Centre we have our own booth, in which we'll present the Portable Solar Pump and other SMARTechs and we will take part in several sessions.

The full program of the conference is available here, and you can join online for free.

The details of the sessions can be found below.

Webinar announcement – Integrity for Self-supply

On Wednesday, April 2 - 15:00 – 16:30 CEST, there will be a webinar; Integrity for Self-supply organized by the Water Integrity Network (WIN) & RWSN.

Presentations include experiences with self-supply in Africa, Asia and Finland and discuss aspects like: Transparency, Management and the Human right to water.

The webinar will include experiences how supporting self-supply can help to Leave no one behind in sub-Saharan Africa and it includes a panel discussion and ample conversation with the audience.

Enclosed a flyer and a link for information and registration Integrity for Self-supply (Integrity Talk 13) | WIN.

For more background on self-supply and supported self-supply, check the page with papers/presentations.

Webinar: Supported self-supply: case studies from four continents

MetaMeta / SMART Centre Group will participate in a webinar on 'Supported self-supply: case studies from four continents' on June 18th, at 9.00AM CEST.

Self-supply exists in almost all countries around the world and in specific times and areas can be the dominant form of service provision. Nevertheless, information on this approach typically is scattered and hard to find – mostly due to the passive role of government and the lack of reporting/monitoring mechanisms. This webinar by the RWSN Self-Supply theme will explore the case studies of formal programs to support self-supply from four continents.

As part of the webinar, Henk Holtslag will present on the experiences of the SMART Centre Group in several countries in Southern Africa and Latin America.

Slides are available here.

For the full announcement 'read more'.