Progress report for
SDG6 Digital Water Management Initiative - from Catchment to City to Waste
Achievement at a glance
Nedamco Africa has been successfully executing and building on the relationships between the United Nations and Microsoft and United Nations and EY:The United Nations call for action “Turning the Tide”. Nedamco created new financing models around climate interventions, by accessing the USD 134 Trillion capital market.:
Microsoft’s objective to deepen its support to the UN's mission and work by advancing global multistakeholder action on key technology, environmental, humanitarian, development, and security goals, as well as by helping advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Microsoft and United Nations Development Programme partnership for Africa (announced on October 5th 2022).
The United Nations strategic partnership with Microsoft to use AI and advanced data technology to track global carbon emissions and water consumption, and assess progress under the Paris Agreement (Announced on November 29th 2023)
EY’s and Microsoft’s initiative to expand social impact collaboration and advance sustainability education worldwide with Green Skills. (Announced on October 2nd 2023)
EY’s and Microsoft’s initiative to design and deliver transformative cloud solutions powered by business ingenuity that helps create long-term value. (Announced on November 16th 2023)
Providing a new form of success-based financing to environmental initiatives by creating 100% digital, traceable and EY verified environmental credits, on the United Nations supported standards, such as ART-Trees for Carbon credits and Volumetric Water Benefits Accounting (VWBA) for water replenishment credits. The sale proceeds of the generated environmental credits – in long-term offtake agreements – are used for the payment of interest and principal of digitally tracked green bonds.
Following the United Nations Water Week (March 2023), Nedamco benefited from being on the United Nations action agenda, as a result of which Nedamco was selected as a Climate Innovator on COP28 (Dubai, December 2023).
Microsoft selected Nedamco Africa out of 2.700 applicants for Microsoft’s global EFPI program.
Microsoft supported Nedamco Africa with the design and integration of Microsoft Technologies to build the Nedamco Climate Digital Twin with AI, large language models and security.
Extending its existing long term partnership with EY, for the verification of the data processed by the Nedamco Climate Digital Twin for the creation of environmental credits and the data for digitally tracking the green bond.
The United Nations member-states (The Netherlands and Ethiopia), made joint public announcements together with Microsoft and Nedamco Africa at the United Nations Water Week (March 2023, New York) and COP28 (Dubai, December 2023).
Nedamco has partnered with Ethiopia for the creation and issuance of 100% digital carbon credits on a jurisdictional basis using UN ART TREES Standards. Ethiopia has planted 32 billion trees under the Green Legacy Initiative. Ethiopia is 100% renewable energy and exporting renewable energy to 5 other countries and starting from January 2024 banned the import of combustion engine cars allowing only the import of EV.
Partnership with the Worldbank’s PSNP program in Ethiopia whereby Nedamco is providing the data from the Nedamco Climate Digital Twin to simulate planned interventions (optimal location for planting trees) to optimize restorations in the catchment area.
Challenges faced in implementation
During the implementation of our water management project, we have encountered several challenges that have required strategic adjustments and solutions:Complex Stakeholder Management: The project integrates innovative financing models, new ICT implementations, and enhancements in the water network. The complexity of combining these elements has made stakeholder management particularly time-consuming. We have now successfully aligned all relevant stakeholders, facilitating smoother project progression.
Data Availability: The efficacy of the Nedamco CCW solution is contingent upon the availability of data.
Local Expertise: Nedamco Africa operates in the cloud, which requires the upskilling of local knowledge necessary for planning and implementing specific interventions. Nedamco Africa Academy hired a local team to transfer the knowledge to the local utility personnel. In addition Nedamco Africa has employed local experts who are well-acquainted with the utilities, thus resolving issues related to both the scarcity of local knowledge and Climate Digital Twin knowledge.
These challenges are being systematically addressed to ensure the project's objectives are met without compromising the planned outcomes.
Beneficiaries
The following beneficiaries will benefit most from the Nedamco Africa Project: For the Dire Dawa project, the benefits can be categorized to highlight the specific beneficiaries and how they benefit from the project: Security Prevention of irregular mass migration Local Communities and Residents Water Replenishment: An additional 6 million m³ of water replenished annually improves water security for local communities, supporting both domestic and agricultural needs. Direct Benefits from Interventions: Approximately 1 million people will benefit from improved water quality and reliability, enhancing health outcomes and overall quality of life. Local workers and their families Employment Opportunities: The Worldbank PSNP Program employs 60,000 local workers to carry out interventions in the Melkajebdu catchment area, providing significant employment that boosts economic stability for workers and their families. Water Utilities and Governmental Authorities Management Tools: The provision of a free water management dashboard enables more efficient management and planning of water resources, leading to better service delivery and conservation. Capacity Building: Training and development provided by the Nedamco Africa Academy, supported by Microsoft, enhances the skills and knowledge of utility staff and future workforce, leading to improved management capabilities within local institutions. Environmental and Ecosystem Health Sustainable Practices: Enhanced water management practices not only benefit human populations but also contribute to the health of local ecosystems by ensuring sustainable use and replenishment of water resources.
Actions
All Nedamco Africa initiatives contribute directly to 12 of the 17 UNDP’s SDG’s.Implementation of the Nedamco Catchment – City – Waste solution (CCW) in Dire Dawa
At May 29th 2024, Nedamco Africa will officially launch the initial CCW project in Dire Dawa in the presence of the Minister of Water and Energy of Ethiopia, the president of the Dire Dawa region, the mayor of Dire Dawa and the Ambassador of the Netherlands.
The project will focus on 4 main objectives:
Enhance catchment interventions: Utilizing satellite imagery, hydrological models, and AI, this project will implement scenario simulation capabilities. These simulations identify the most effective interventions for the catchments of both cities—the Melkajebdu catchment in Dire Dawa and the Erer catchment in Harar.
Enhancing Water Quality: We will install sensors to continuously monitor chlorine levels, pH, and temperature. Chlorine dosing stations are installed to ensure optimal chlorine values, vital for maintaining the biological quality of drinking water towards meeting WHO standards.
Enhancing the quantity of water: we will significantly decrease water loss by repairing leaks across the cities' networks using ‘in pipe repair’ food-grade sealants, thereby avoiding disruptive excavation and reducing the impact on residents.
Delivering Environmental dashboards for the Dire Dawa-region (for Catchment, City, and Wastewater), with the usage of Digital Twin Technology, Artificial Intelligence, large language models, and Security, all running on Microsoft technology in the Cloud.
The dashboards provide insights in the current state of water management in and around Dire Dawa. It provides models to predict future events, such as climate disasters. It facilitates simulations of interventions, based on historical satellite data, going back 30 years. It allows for near-real tracking of future events. This allows national and local governments to decide on the best possible actions, based on authoritative data.
All project enhancements and savings will be digitally tracked and integrated into the Nedamco Digital Twin Solution (Catchment – City – Wastewater, or CCW), which is nearing implementation. The CCW will offer various dashboards and reports, providing new insights and enabling the simulation of different water management scenarios to determine the most effective implementation strategy. All data and improvements will be recorded on the blockchain-based Microsoft Environmental Credit Service (ECS).
We have established a partnership with EY to continuously verify and validate all data. We are currently negotiating the funding for this project through Green Bonds, which will ensure there are no out-of-pocket costs for the utilities or local governments. The savings generated will be transformed into water credits/certificates, helping to amortize the costs and interest associated with the Green Bonds.
A comprehensive project plan is supported by a team of local and international experts. All necessary vendors, technologies, and equipment have been selected, providing a solid foundation for successful project execution.