The Directorate of Water in Ninawa depended on a paper-based system for collecting water revenues in Mosul city and all other areas in Ninawa Governorate. This led to a heavy workload and errors due to the laboursome and manual processing of data. Before 2014, the Directorate started a small-scale initiative to digitise the water fee collection system. However, this system was destroyed during the period when IS occupied the area.
The Information Systems Center of the Ministry of Construction, Housing, Municipalities and Public Works in Baghdad had already developed a standardized database system for water fee collection with the intention to connect all the provincial water directorates to the central database in Baghdad. However, the directorate in Ninawa lacked the necessary equipment and resources to license, activate and use this system.
Especially during the summer season, the needs become more evident with the decreasing water levels in the Tigris and the underground reservoirs. This calls for better management of water resources and reduction of water wastage.
The MASAR - PCPM team provided the directorate with an integrated cycle of support for developing the revenue collection system and converting the existing paper-based system into a digital one:
• Assessment of the water fees collection and management system
• Employees of the Ninawa water directorate visiting their colleagues in Kirkuk to familiarise themselves with the water fee collection system there, which was already connected to the central system in Baghdad
• Providing furniture, IT equipment and software
• Four training sessions on Oracle database operation, maintenance and management that benefitted 38 employees of the directorate.
Through this support, a digital revenue collection system for water, sewage, garbage fees is now operating in Ninawa, the directorate is able to sustain it and develops plans for its further expansion.
