iSAtech water GmbH
STS System STS prepaid water meters in Uganda and Tanzania

Project start: 2020/2021

Partner: Water Mission

Countries: Uganda, Tanzania

The aim is to provide families with drinking water in their homes in villages. A public water supply is not available. Management is to be carried out independently in the villages. The running costs of the water infrastructure are to be covered by the income from the sale of water.

Nevertheless, the administrative process is to be automated as far as possible so that the villagers can manage it entirely without additional support. Simple and cost-effective STS prepaid water meters with PIN pads are used for this purpose.

STS (Standard Transfer Specification) is an international, manufacturer-independent standard for prepaid electricity and water meters that work with credit tokens. A 16-digit token is entered into the meter, which then dispenses a corresponding amount of water or electricity.

To implement a process that is as simple and tamper-proof as possible, the water is to be sold exclusively electronically and paid for using a prevalent mobile payment method. The revenue should be collected in a joint management account.

Case Study:How to Achieve Financial Sustainability in Micro Rural Water Utilities using Reliable Remote Monitoring and Fintech Technology (PReMa)

For this purpose, the iSAtech PayU-Cloud was set up as a central payment and management system:

The consumer is registered in the system with their water meter by a contact person in the village.

The consumer sends a mobile payment to the joint credit account.

The iSAtech PayU-Cloud records the payment and assigns it to the consumer.

The iSAtech PayU-Cloud generates a credit token for the consumer’s meter.

The iSAtech PayU-Cloud sends the consumer an SMS with the token.

The consumer enters the token at the PIN pad of his meter and receives water according to his payment.

The system is kept so simple for the villagers that it can be used without significant instruction or training. The statistical evaluations and the consideration of water production volumes allow a quick overview of possible water losses.

Project cornerstones:

  • Project for water distribution with cost-effective STS domestic water meters
  • Automatic recording of payments by evaluating instant payment notification SMS
  • No complex and costly system integration with the payment provider necessary
  • Automatic generation of verified STS credit tokens
  • All STS-compliant electricity and water meters can be used
  • Automatic delivery of tokens via SMS
  • Simple management of the system using a tablet in the village
  • Connection to the water infrastructure to record the amount of water pumped
  • Embedding in the project partner’s IT infrastructure to evaluate and identify water losses