Component 3

In certain areas of Mozambique’s central region, the climate is characterised by high temperatures and a lack of significant rainfall. These arid and semi-arid areas often face severe water scarcity that impacts drinking water supply, farming, and community health.

To address water shortages in the central region of Mozambique, the Central Regional Water Administration (ARA Centro,IP), in partnership with Songo Polytechnic Institute (ISPS) with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Mozambique, started the construction of sand dams. This type of dam was first introduced in Mozambique in 2007 by the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) and has proven to be an effective solution for improving water storage and water availability in the dry areas of Tete and Manica Provinces.

What are sand dams?

Sand dams are small structures designed to retain water and sand, built in a watercourse with a high capacity for transporting sandy soils. In this type of dam, the water is stored underground, in the spaces between the sand grains. This reduces water loss due to evaporation.

The underground water is usually extracted through a scoop hole or a hand pump. The first method is more common in Tete, but the water can be polluted by animals.

Other great benefits are associated with sand dams: they help to improve access to clean water (as the sand acts as a natural filter), reduce the risk of water contamination, and also help to reduce the mosquito population.

The costs of constructing a sand dam are typically low because of the use of locally available materials and the involvement of the local community.

Community engagement in water storage

Engaging communities in the development of water storage solutions is crucial for sustainable water management in areas facing water scarcity. ARA Centro,IP and ISPS have been working with members of the communities that benefit from sand dams in all stages of the planning, construction, and maintenance process. This approach increases community ownership and improves the relationship between local communities and the public and private entities.

Promoting the construction of sand dams

ARA Centro,IP has been building sand dams as part of the activities of the Dutch Embassy’s IWRM programme in Mozambique. The Blue Deal partnership is working with ARA Centro,IP and ISPS to share knowledge and experience in the construction of this type of infrastructure with the other ARAs.

In a Community of Practice of Water Storage set up by our partnership, representatives from each ARA and DNGRH meet regularly to discuss planning, construction, and maintenance of sand dams among other subjects in the field of water storage.

The partnership is also helping to set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Water Storage in ARA Centro,IP (Tete). This CoE will share knowledge and spread the word about this topic to professionals in the water sector, students, and the general public.

In 2021, a network was set up to share knowledge in the field of communication. The network is part of Component 3 of the Blue Deal Mozambique partnership and involves the communication teams of the three ARAs (ARA-Centro,IP, ARA-Norte,IP and ARA-Sul,IP) and experts from DWA. Since 2021, there has been a continuous exchange of knowledge in the field of communication, with two live meetings and training sessions on various topics. The ARAs have developed various communication activities, including awareness campaigns for water users licensing. The results are promising.

Communication activities

The activities carried out by the ARAs include: licensing campaigns; the renewal of the ARA Sul website, which now allows requesting permits online; the production of radio programmes and TV spots; participation in FACIM; sponsored posts on social networks and text messages by phone (in the event of a flood alert). There was also the acquisition of a drone and a training course on its use for the technical and communication departments of ARA Sul,IP.

Licensing campaigns

ARA Sul,IP and ARA Norte,IP carried out licensing campaigns for groundwater users and were able to increase the number of new permits (and thus increase the financial return). In addition to Facebook, radio, and bulk SMS campaigns, field visits were carried out to survey unregulated users and identify and license new raw water users. ARA Centro,IP produced an institutional video and shared its experience of using a 5-step debt negotiation plan with the other ARAs.

Knowledge-sharing

In addition to the online meetings to coordinate and discuss communication strategies and activities, two live meetings were organised to maximise knowledge sharing. The first meeting was held in Nampula (at ARA Norte, IP) in 2022 and another in Tete (at ARA Centro, IP) in 2023. At each meeting, experts from the ARAs and DWA made presentations on various topics, including water management and communication in the Netherlands, communication planning and strategy, key messages, target group analysis, press relations, social media strategies, user relations, and internal communication and its importance for the development of the ARAs. A field trip was included in the programme of each meeting.

Media training

A media training session was held in October 2023 for the ARA Sul,IP General Director, Head of Divisions, and the communication team. The participants underwent test interviews with a television camera crew led by journalist Jeremias Langa.

The interviews were then viewed and critiqued by the participants from ARA Sul,IP. The theoretical part of the course covered topics such as the media landscape in Mozambique, tips for preparing interviews, and crisis management. The practical part also included a simulation of a press conference in which the General Director of ARA Sul,IP announced a flood.

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The ARAs are already working on communication activities for 2024. The next live meeting is planned for early 2025.

As part of the water allocation (Component 3), aiming to contribute to the improvement and innovation of the selection, construction and maintenance of small water reservoirs, a fieldwork mission took place in June 2021 in Manica and Sofala Provinces within the Pungue and Buzi basins. Two technicians of ARA Centro, a consultant from Resilience, a program partner and the program officer were part of the mission.

During the 5 days of fieldwork local government offices, agricultural fields and hydraulic infrastructure were visited to understand different water storage solutions in the region. The results of the field mission served as input for the E-learning module 4 being prepared under the cooperation of the Blue Deal with the Orange Knowledge Program (OKP).

Module 4 is a knowledge-sharing activity on water storage techniques and structures to increase water availability which will target ARA Centro technical staff and staff of NGOs involved in the process of operation and maintenance of water storage structures in order to draw up a water allocation plan for 2 pilot areas located in the districts of Nhamatanda and Vanduzi in the Pungue and Buzi basins.

In 2021, we continued the activities to introduce the software tool SIRHA of iCarto for licencing and billing of water users within the ARAs. Amongst others, the monthly “debate group" meetings were continued

ARA Sul has used this tool since 2019 and the efficiency of the working process for licensing and billing increased dramatically. As a result, ARA Sul now has a better view of the total water use, and the revenues from water users increased. Now, fewer errors in data exist and less time is spent on the process. The video in this link https://youtu.be/AI8qQSWp84c explains these improvements.

In 2020/2021, the former five ARA’s merged into three ARA’s. In addition, the department structure changed. Now the SIRHA tool has to be adapted to this new situation and the databases of water users have to be joined. More training in the use of SIRHA will be organised for ARA Centro and ARA Norte. For this work, a new assignment for iCarto for the coming year will be prepared.

Last year a prototype was developed to integrate the data of water users in the SIRHA tool with the water allocation model (WEAP) to facilitate the hydrological assessment of new requests for water use.

ARA Sul has to send 1000-1500 bills to water users every month. To improve the efficiency of this process, a prototype was made for the integration of the SIRHA data with the billing software Primavera. In the coming year, these two prototypes will be used in the working processes of ARA Sul and will be evaluated. A new pilot will be started in ARA Sul to use satellite images to find water users and a test will be done with e-learning course online requests for a licence by new water users. After a positive evaluation of these new tools, we intend to introduce these new tools in the other two ARAs.

Under the first objective of the water allocation component, aiming to improve the process of licensing and billing, a term of reference was developed by Blue Deal with the input of all the ARA’s for the continuation of the work performed by iCarto for the development and operation of SIRHA. On May 28, 2021, the last monthly meeting of the Debate Group moderated by Anton Amado took place via Skype, where new priorities were defined by each ARA for the continuation of the partnership with iCarto. The following 4 priorities were defined: tasks for unification and restructuring, training, follow-up, support and debate, identified improvements in the system and prototype developments.

In November 2019 ARA Sul discovered remarkable groundwater fluctuations in the Maputo - Incomanti River Basin. The data may indicate depletion of the groundwater system. Lizete Dias (ARA Sul) reacted: “We never knew there was such a large groundwater extraction in that area. Systematic analysis provides a lot of insight.””.

"Scenario study needed"“

In November 2019, a delegation of Dutch Water Authorities travelled to Maputo, Mozambique. They were invited to assist ARA Sul with the development of a strategic groundwater plan. Hydrologist Robert Broekhuis: “Since we don’t have a crystal ball, the development of the growth in water demand is unpredictable. A scenario study is needed to provide insight into the effects of the actual groundwater use and the different water demands.”. ”

Groundwater modelling

To be able to interpret the observations in a validated manner, a groundwater model is required. This model should approach reality as near as possible. The base of this model has been developed by experts Pieter Filius and Marijke Jaarsma. “To validate and calibrate the model, we needed monitoring data. ARA Sul has a groundwater monitoring network, from where multiple-year monitoring data can be extracted and made available for the model” – Said Robert.

Remarkable ground water fluctuations

The Mozambican and Dutch experts executed a time series analysis of the available groundwater level data. In certain monitoring series, they observed eventual abnormal groundwater fluctuations: strange ‘peaks and drops’.

Indicated depletion

On a larger scale, these new insights may indicate the depletion of the groundwater system. Lizete Dias from ARA Sul replied: “We never knew there was such a large groundwater extraction in that area. Systematic analysis provides a lot of insight.”“.

Hereunder in the left graph fluctuations in groundwater level appear twice a day. In this case, it means, the groundwater level is influenced by the tide. The right graph shows a groundwater decline at approximately 7 AM, lasting till 12 PM (only once a day). Which suggests that it’s caused by an "on-off" groundwater extraction. In addition, the water level never becomes a flat line (groundwater level at rest).

In 2020 all ARA’s work on improving their water users relation management, by adopting the system SIRHSenior technician Lizete Dias of ARA Sul has experienced the system for two years:“Using this system, we achieved an increase of the number of licences, and consequently a rise of invoices for the use of water -and thus the budget of the institution”.

Licence management system

In 2017, iCartoa Spanish consultancy firm and partner of Blue Deal developed the ARAs Water Licence Management System (SIRH: Utentes). SIRH is not only a database, but also a tool to improve the work processes of all the departments of ARAs that are involved in the management of information on users.

Management improvements

ARA-Sul has been using this system for two years now. Lizete Dias:“SIRH has strengthened the management capacity of the departments of ARA-Sul and the internal information flow.“ In 2020, the Blue Deal project is funding the introduction of the system at ARA-Centro and ARA Centro-Norte. Furthermore, all ARAs will be getting workshops and training on the system. ARA Sul will realize system improvements to increase work efficiency.

Information on the use of water

With SIRH also information on the use of water in space and time becomes available, which is important. Because, as Lizete Dias states: “knowledge about water demand and resource availability is the key to improve access of people and enterprises to water”.