The Amigos for Christ Water for Chinandega Team has been incredibly busy over the course of 2021! Visiting new communities that still lack clean water, organizing and training local water committees where water projects have begun, and collecting information from the families in each of these communities have been a huge collaborative effort. Perhaps the most difficult task has been trying to help the water committees calculate, understand, and deliver water bills to the users. In order to keep track of water consumption and billing, a new tool called Water Perfect was developed by John Bland and his son, Robert Bland. Meanwhile, other members of the Water for Chinandega Team, Walter Lopez and Carlos Corrales, have been field-testing this application out in the communities.
Water Perfect is an application that can be used on any tablet or cellphone, and it collects, calculates, and stores data for each water system user. It stores data such as water meter readings, water bills that are due, and payments that are received (or not received) by the water committee. Those payments are then deposited into a bank account that is managed by the community’s water committee. The purpose of this account is to pay for the energy costs that are required to pump the water from the well, as well as any repairs that the water system might need down the line. Thus, Water Perfect also tracks the amount of water that is pumped by the community well, the funds in the community’s bank account, and where those funds are going. The whole idea behind Water Perfect is to facilitate a sustainable and transparent way of managing the water system for each community.
A couple weeks ago, the Water for Chinandega Team invited the water committees from the communities of El Chaparral and La Picota to the Amigos Complex in Chinandega for an intense training session. Walter, Carlos, and Cesar, the newest member of the Water for Chinandega Team, walked the committees through the Water Perfect application, showing them how to use each feature of the application. The committees had good questions and left feeling confident and ready to use the application in their respective communities. The next step will be to walk alongside the water committees as they try out and test the application for themselves!
