Find and fix water leaks across city suburbs faster

Overview

Help the city find, report and fix water leaks faster across its suburbs.

Posted by

Local authority · Bulawayo

Location

Bulawayo (one pilot suburb)

Sub-theme

Smart Cities & Urban Innovation

Team size

2–6 people

Pilot budget

Pilot budget on request

Applications close

20 Dec 2026

• GIS
• Mobile
• Citizen reporting

The problem

Background

The city loses a large share of its treated water to leaks and bursts in an ageing pipe network. Residents report leaks by phone or in person, and the reports are logged by hand.

What's going wrong

Many leaks go unreported, while others are reported several times by different people. Repair crews lack exact locations and priorities, so repairs take days and water rationing gets worse.

What we need

A strong solution will:

• Make it easy for residents to report a leak with a location and a photo.
• Merge duplicate reports and rank leaks by severity.
• Give crews a daily job list and track repair times.
• Show residents what has been fixed.

Constraints

• Reporting must work over WhatsApp or USSD as well as smartphones.
• Must run on the city’s existing servers or a low-cost hosted plan.
• Residents’ personal data must be protected.

Deliverables

By forum week, matched teams are expected to bring:

1. A working reporting and job-tracking prototype.
2. A test with one suburb and one repair crew.
3. Running costs and a rollout plan.
4. A seven-minute pitch for forum week.

How teams are evaluated

Applications and final pitches are scored by the challenge owner and the ZBIF secretariat on:

• Fit to the problem30%

  Does it solve the problem as the challenge owner describes it?

• Technical feasibility25%

  Can the team build and run it with the resources available?

• Cost and scalability20%

  Is it affordable to pilot, and to roll out if the pilot works?

• Team capability15%

  Does the team have the skills and time to deliver?

• Local impact10%

  Jobs, skills or value it keeps in Zimbabwe.

Who can apply

• A registered ZBIF innovator account: innovators, consultancies, technologists, university teams or freelancers.
• At least one team member based in Zimbabwe.
• Able to attend forum week in Bulawayo on 27–28 April 2027 if shortlisted.
• IP ownership and pilot terms are agreed between your team and the challenge owner in the Deal Room.

Timeline

1. 25 Sep 2026 Challenge posted We are here
2. 20 Dec 2026 Applications close
3. Within 3 weeks Matching results sent to teams and the challenge owner
4. Until mid-April 2027 Build phase, with mentor and challenge-owner check-ins
5. 27–28 Apr 2027 Live pitch and Deal Rooms at forum week, Bulawayo

Data and resources

Shared with matched teams after signing a simple data-use agreement.

• Water network maps (GIS) for pilot suburbs Shapefiles
• Past leak report logs Spreadsheet
• Engineering department contact Fortnightly check-in