PROBLEM: Lack of accountability and trust
More than 1,600 rural towns in Panama without municipal utilities struggle to maintain safe and operational water systems due to inadequate financial sustainability. The Community Water Committees (CWC) are often underfunded due to low trust and accountability, hindering their ability to provide critical services and maintain community investments by the government and nonprofits. We have found that as little as 0-8% of billed payments are paid each month, limiting water system maintance and reducing trust in CWC abilities to operate the system and for neighbors to pay. Online technologies have made digital transaction tracking commonplace for connected customers with credit cards and bank accounts, but these new methods have not become equitably accessible, leaving disconnected and unbanked individuals and their communities more vulnerable.
SOLUTION: ConectaRoo, a transparent, real-time accounting tool for communities
ConectaRoo provides a digital administrative, accounting, and bidirectional communication solution that builds community trust:
- Accountability and communication system among users (households) and managers (CWC) by establishing trusted intermediaries (e.g., store owners) to relay financial transactions.
- Transparent cash transaction documentation to raise baseline level of trust and amplify incremental gains.
- Bidirectional communication to increase economic and health resilience by sharing issues and opportunities in real-time.
IMPACT TO-DATE: A 300% increase in monthly payments for community water systems
In our first pilot in Panama, our collaborating community collected 300% of the payments they collected in the preceding 6 months! And we are just getting started, incorporating local businesses as intermediaries to make payments simple across distant community sites and providing tech education and support. We are excited to expand to the additional 1,600 other communities in Panama with self-managed water systems as well as across Latin America and beyond.
Help Expand our Impact
We are aiming to raise $50,000 to enable a year of rapid expansion of ConectaRoo, continue to incorporate feedback from communities, and enable communities to solve their own water infrastructure challenges through sustainable self-funding.
Contact us: contact@futurescientist.org
Contact us: contact@futurescientist.org