USAID/ Tanzania Water Resources Integration Development Initiative (WARIDI)

Key Results

Private Sector Partnerships

During our time on WARIDI, we designed, built, and implemented 15 private-sector partnerships. These included:

Testing new smart water meters with eWaterPay.

Resonance launched a partnership with eWaterPay to pilot a smart meter technology that allows community members to pre-pay for water at water points using mobile money. This allows community members to pre-pay for water at water points using mobile money. The technology also ensures water revenue is tracked, accountable, and transparently used by water authorities to pay for needed maintenance and improvements to the water system. Resonance, WARIDI, and eWaterPay piloted the system in two communities, serving about 23,000 people.

• Our final evaluation found that the introduction of eWaterPay reduced the time to collect water at community water taps by 60 percent and increased water availability from 10 hours to 24 hours per day. 
• Based in part on this pilot, eWaterPay secured a World Bank-funded grant to install 650 prepaid water meters in Dodoma and Singida to scale its impact. 

Expanding Improved Latrine Distribution with LIXIL.

LIXIL—which owns global brands such as American Standard, GROHE, and INAX—has developed a product line called SATO (“Safe Toilet”) for quality improved latrines priced at about $3.50-$5.00 in developing markets. SATO latrines are affordable and good quality, and they vastly improve user comfort and hygiene for basic pit latrines. WARIDI partnered with LIXIL to support distribution of SATO latrines in the rural and peri-urban areas served by the project. 

• Through the partnership, we connected LIXIL to hundreds of small retailers across 20 rural and peri-urban districts; helped forge relationships between LIXIL and wholesalers and regional distributors; and worked with LIXIL to identify and train a network of masons to install SATO products for rural customers. 
• The partners sold nearly 5,000 SATO latrines in WARIDI areas over the partnership period.

Piloting Water Treatment Technology with Medentech.

Medentech’s Aquatabs is an effective, affordable water treatment (chlorination) product, used mainly at the household level or by relief agencies. However, Medentech has recently developed higher-capacity solutions, capable of treating water for entire water systems. WARIDI partnered with Medentech and Tanzanian community water authorities to pilot two such solutions—Aquatabs Flo and Aquatabs InLine—in the real-world context of a community water system serving 13,000 people.

• We worked with Medentech to design, launch, and monitor the pilot. Our evaluation found that, in a well-functioning water system, Aquatabs InLine could be an apt solution to treat water at a relatively large scale. The majority (82 percent) of interviewed water users were satisfied with Medentech water treatment, and 57 percent reported that they’d be willing to pay a higher water tariff to cover the costs of water treatment. 

Exploring Expanded WASH Financing with Water.org.

For rural water authorities, accessing affordable finance for needed investments in water infrastructure is a serious challenge. Water.org is an international NGO focused on unlocking finance for improved water and sanitation, in partnership with local banks and financial institutions. 

• Resonance and WARIDI partnered with Water.org to (a) train local water authorities on water tariff setting, facility management, business planning, and financial management to help them better manage and repay loans; (b) co-design appropriate financial products with Water.org’s local financial institution partners; and (c) connect local water authorities to local bank and financial institution partners for future financing.

Microenterprise Training and WASH Distribution Channels

Under WARIDI, we explored the role of community-level microenterprises—i.e., pharmacies, hardware stores, and farm input shops—in expanding distribution and sale of WASH products in remote rural areas. 

• We provided business training—focused on financial management, basic business plan development, and sales and marketing techniques—to 484 microenterprise owners in rural and peri-urban Tanzania. Over the course of these trainings, microenterprise owners met with representatives from WASH companies looking to expand sales into rural Tanzania. This network of nearly 500 microenterprises also became a critical link in WARIDI supply chain and LIXIL partnership activities.

WASH Company Business Development Services (BDS) and Supply Chain Strengthening

We selected and supported three WASH companies with promising products and interest in expanding their distribution channels in rural areas. These were LIXIL (maker of SATO improved latrines) and Anuflo Industries and Kasole Secrets (both manufacturers of menstrual hygiene products).

• For Anuflo Industries and Kasole Secrets, our team developed tailored BDS products and training to build business planning, organizational development, human resources, and marketing management capacity.
• This support helped Kasole Secrets win major grants from Grand Challenges Canada and UNICEF to build out manufacturing and distribution channels for their menstrual hygiene products in peri-urban and rural Tanzania. 
• With headquarters in Dar es Salaam, LIXIL, Anuflo Industries, and Kasole Secrets found it particularly challenging to identify wholesalers, distribution partners, and retailers in rural and peri-urban communities. To overcome this obstacle, we coordinated a series of B2B meetings to connect each of the three companies to WARIDI’s network of trained microenterprises and other potential distribution and retail partners across 20 districts. 
• Through these B2B sessions, Kasole Secrets, LIXIL, and Anuflo Industries entered into a total of 82 distribution and pricing agreements with distributors, wholesalers, and retailers in WARIDI-supported communities.