Nanyuki water and sewerage company (NAWASCO) is located in Nanyuki town Laikipia county Kenya.it operates as a county water service provider mandated to serve Nanyuki town and its environs. For a long time, NAWASCO’s field officers used old maps to monitor water connections. Having inherited customers from the Nanyuki Municipal council, they had to do an intense ground work to mark their territory. They walked around with the old maps following water pipelines between intake and the consumption points in order to identify the number of customers served under their jurisdiction.
That was cumbersome! With advancement in technology, a decision was made to digitize the system to ease the identification burden.
Journey to Digitization.
To kick-off the digitization journey, QGIS a Free and Open Source Geographic Information software was used to convert old maps into computer readable documents that were used to develop the Geographic Information System. A GIS database was developed using POSTGIS where all the digitized data were stored. For analysis purposes and building a strong GIS system field data was collected using hand held GPS .These included pressure data, new connections, newly installed appurtenances and fittings.
The amount of water lost between production and billing points has been one of the major challenges faced at NAWASCO. FOSS4G applications has assisted the team to have a better understanding of network and prompt leaks and bursts repairs hence reducing non- revenue water. Nanyuki water success story of Non-Revenue water reduction from 55% to 30% is largely due to adoption of GIS technology (Free and Open Source Geographic Information software. The water utility has also improved its billing efficiency through GIS. Meter readers, billing officers, repairs and maintenance team and non-revenue water team are now able to locate customers using shared vector tiles from the link.