FAQs

eWATER has at least five USPs which set us apart from others trying to provide clean water access in Africa:

Built to last
It’s the principle we were founded on. In rural Africa, nearly two-thirds of water taps fail within two years – but we guarantee to service and maintain every smart water system for at least 10 years.

We take full responsibility
From finance and design to installation, operation, and monitoring, we manage the whole system. That means no finger-pointing if things go wrong. Just a reliable service that can be trusted.

Our technology is built for transparency
Our complete digital ecosystem – custom prepaid water meters, design software, consumer registration apps, AI tools, and tank height sensors – tracks every liter and every payment, so we and our supporters know exactly the impact we’re making.

We build local expertise that delivers
We hire the best engineers, project managers and technicians in every country and equip them with training, performance incentives, and career growth – building skills, creating jobs, and ensuring world-class service.

Our simple payment model drives trust
Mobile money and personal digital wallets make water affordable and accessible for all. Real-time data on every drop reassures regulators and investors that every community – and every dollar – is accounted for.

Customers pay as little as $5 per person per year for clean water, ensuring they value the water, driving ownership. To put this into perspective, people pay on average $100 per year for kerosene and $30 for mobile phones per year.

Yes. Currently every household in Sub-Saharan Africa has at least one mobile phone and the economic burden of walking long distances or paying unregulated vendors is $38 per month per person. People can afford to pay for clean water and want to pay if that means the system is maintained. The problem is often political, when there is an election the local politicians and governors offer brand new free systems to people. In Kenya there are thousands of drilled boreholes that have been capped – so they are not actually working or connected to pipes, they were just drilled at massive expense to offer the promise of a new system to people during election times. People now shrug their shoulders and accept that water systems break, and get half built and never work, it is part of their daily lives.

Every cent from water sales goes straight back into keeping the taps running – day after day, year after year. Maintaining water systems isn’t simple: it takes skilled engineers, responsive customer service teams, and dedicated technicians on the ground. That’s why we invest in building a talented local workforce, equipped with the right tools, training, and technology to deliver a fast, reliable, and customer-focused service.

Water credit is exchanged for litres of water at the Smart Tap. All you need to do is place your tag onto the Smart Tap, water comes out and you only pay for what you use.

It’s quick and easy. In Tanzania and Kenya, customers buy eWATER credits using mobile money, which is widely used. They log into their M-Pesa account, buy as little as a few cents of water credit using their eWATERtag ID, and receive a text with directions to their preferred tap.

A simple tap of their eWATERtag on the reader uploads the credit from the eWATERcloud, ready for use.

In The Gambia, where mobile money is less common, local eWATERsellers handle credit top-ups. Customers pay in cash, and the seller uses our app and a smartphone to instantly transfer credit to the customer’s eWATERtag via NFC.

The fees charged to customers in rural Africa only cover the costs of operation, maintenance, and rehabilitation. Recovering capital costs has proven difficult due to low income levels and the high capital costs associated with areas where water access is challenging. Currently, capital costs are recovered through the sale of carbon offsets generated by most of the projects.

Every eWATER carbon credit is certified by Gold Standard, one of the most rigorous and respected global verification bodies. This means each tonne of CO₂ we claim to reduce has been independently measured, monitored, and verified against strict international criteria.

But we go beyond the standard. Our smart water systems are digitally monitored in real time, so we can track exactly how much water is being used, and how many emissions are avoided. This transparent data is available to our partners, giving clear, verifiable proof of impact – both in carbon reductions and in life-changing benefits for the communities we serve.

Yes, we have carbon offset credits available to buy, fully verified by Gold Standard on their registry. So you can buy them and retire them straight away, or we can transfer them if you have your own registry.

Buy carbon offset credits

If you want to fund access to clean water in rural Africa that lasts, we’d love to work with you. Too often, donors see taps they’ve funded break down, leaving communities without the water they need. We do things differently; our model keeps taps working for the long term.
We’re on track to reach a million people by 2028, and you can be part of it – whether by funding a single tap, a complete village system, or even an entire county network. And thanks to our transparent technology, you can see exactly what you’ve funded in real time, with a live view of every tap you’ve paid for – working and continuing to work.

Help us Reach A Million People With Safe, Lasting Water

Yes, we have successful partnerships with businesses who allocate some of their profits to eWATER as part of their social responsibility commitments. Businesses enjoy working with us because they know that when they fund an eWATERtap or water system, it’s going to be looked after and running for the long term.

Reach out to us