Programme Components and Activities
The activities of the Blue Deal Mozambique are divided into five components. Each component is led by one of the Mozambican partners.
Our activities create opportunities for the development of knowledge and tools for the improvement of the managerial, technical and operational capacity of the ARAs and the SASB.
Component 1
Planning, Budgeting, and Control
The partnership is helping to ensure the proper functioning of the ARAs through the improvement of the planning, budgeting and control processes. We support the ARAs in developing strategic plans, operational plans, investment plans and indicators, in the hope of contributing to the financial sustainability of these institutions.
Component 2
Water Quality
The ARAs are responsible for some water quality monitoring activities. As such, our partnership works to share knowledge and experience on water quality monitoring, effluent discharge and the development of multidisciplinary solutions.
Component 3
Water allocation
Ensuring the availability of water in all seasons is one of the main challenges faced by the ARAs in Mozambique. To meet this challenge, we are supporting the development of more detailed information on the availability and distribution of surface and groundwater and its users.
Component 4
FLOOD (AND DROUGHT) RISK MANAGEMENT
Mozambique is a country prone to natural disasters. We have therefore included in our partnership measures to reduce the risk of flooding, such as improving flood forecasting capacity, early warning systems and managing dikes and canals.
Component 5
TECHNICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING OF THE SASB
We're working with other organisations and programmes to help the SASB operate the drainage system and keep the city of Beira clean.
Communities of Practice
The Blue Deal Mozambique partnership has created opportunities to generate and share knowledge between partners through the Communities of Practice (CoPs) created within the programme.
Description
Storing and updating information on the usage of water resources, especially the issuing of licences and their enforcement, has been done manually for several decades. This process is very time-consuming for the ARA staff. It is also costly due to field trips.
In 2019, the Blue Deal Mozambique partnership supported the development of a platform called SIRHA (Water Resources Information System of the ARAs) by Icarto. This platform provides an overview and geo-referencing of water users, effective licensing procedures and license renewal management, and improved insight into the relationship between volumes consumed and fees paid.
SIRHA optimises the user registration process, which could have a very positive impact on ARA revenues.
ARA Sul started the process of automating the registration of water users and the issuing of licences using SIRHA. Gradually, ARA Norte and ARA Centro became involved and the SIRHA Community of Practice was formed. This CoP shares experiences in the use of this platform, contributes to the continuous improvement of the software and suggests possible integrations with other systems used by the ARAs.
Description
The Licensing and Enforcement of Effluent discharge CoP focuses on discussing and ensuring the adoption of appropriate tools and regulations for the licensing and enforcement of effluent discharge.
The main action of the CoP is to strengthen cooperation between the organisations involved in the licensing and enforcement process for wastewater discharge. The CoP also continues to develop useful solutions for day-to-day work, such as a checklist and guidelines for the licensing and enforcement process, a subject manual, updating the raw water quality standards, etc.
Description
The communication group is composed of representatives of the customer services department from each ARA. This group discusses the best strategies to improve the visibility of these organisations and aspects related to the promotion of the services provided. The discussions and exchange of experiences also aim to strengthen the institutional image of the ARAs. The group develops strategies to increase awareness for the registration of new water users.
Description
Water storage infrastructure plays an important role in the management of water resources in Mozambique, serving as a key component in mitigating water scarcity.
To overcome some of the problems associated with water storage in arid and semi-arid areas, ARA Centro,IP ( in association with ISPS and the Christian Council of Mozambique) has started the construction of (small) sand dams. These infrastructures offer a number of benefits, most notably the reduction of water loss through evaporation.
To disseminate ARA Centro's expertise in building this type of nature-based, climate-resilient infrastructure, the Water Storage CoP has been set up. This CoP brings together experts in the water sector on a regular basis.