Instant Messaging Empowers CAPS Leaders

By Orlando Montiel, Clean Water Program Officer

In these times when technology is used to improve efficiency and streamline communication, learning, and the exchange of experiences, Self-Help International has kept pace, utilizing simple and user-friendly platforms to ensure its clients stay relevant. In Nicaragua, the Self-Help International Clean Water Program has been gradually introducing the use of WhatsApp, an easy-to-use messaging application for smartphones.

The development and use of this technology facilitates better exchange of information among CAPS (Community Water and Sanitation Committee) leaders in different geographical locations, allowing them to communicate with each other about their community water systems.

CAPS are a key link in the municipal water management system in rural communities. They are comprised of men and women representing the community who are responsible for maintaining the aqueduct, collecting fees, and liaising with municipal authorities. 

This tool has enabled them to make voice and video calls, send voice notes (audio), share text messages, images, and PDF documents, and send meeting notices and invitations to training sessions. Now, CAPS leaders in different geographical locations can communicate and exchange information about their experiences regarding their community water systems.

The WhatsApp groups are managed by the Self-Help International Clean Water Program Officer and the Country Director. One of their main functions has been to facilitate easy and quick access to information.

Through the WhatsApp groups, CAPS managers request technical advice and ask questions related to their community rural water systems. The Clean Water Program Officer can then send technical recommendations to plumbers and managers and share educational documents and personalized advice.

The Clean Water Program Officer also uses the WhatsApp groups to ensure the different communities within the same municipality are informed about the successes other communities have had in water purification by sharing images of water monitoring and residual free chlorine levels in users’ homes. This information can serve as a practical example for other CAPS in the same municipality. 

Experiences from CAPS director training sessions are shared when conducted in a specific location (in the field), as well as the events that take place in community assemblies so that all other CAPS members are informed. 

Further, the Program Officer provides contact information for local companies, organizations, and service providers related to the drinking water sector (such as well drilling and maintenance, electric pumps, etc.), as well as suppliers of products and items like water meters and pipe fittings. 

To maintain a professional, respectful, and truthful work environment within the WhatsApp groups managed by Self-Help International, the following community guidelines were implemented: 

• All participants will be CAPS directors for their respective municipalities and give prior consent to be added to the group by the administrator.
• Each member of the group may add another CAPS manager from their respective community, and each member of the group is free to leave the group voluntarily. 
• Respect the objective of the CAPS WhatsApp group
• Comments that are outside the context for which the group was created are not allowed
• Do not share information that has not been verified
• Think before sending and sharing any information or file
• Do not share inappropriate content
• Communicate within the group clearly and simply
• Creating conflicts within the group is prohibited

The Clean Water Program officer has so far created 6 WhatsApp groups to serve as two-way communication spaces for CAPS leaders from more than 100 rural communities in the municipalities of El Castillo, San Carlos, San Miguelito, Morrito, El Almendro, and Nueva Guinea.

In addition to CAPS members, the WhatsApp groups for each municipality also include representatives of local entities that work on everything related to drinking water together with Self-Help International with the sole objective of supporting any need that CAPS directors present according to what they perceive in their water systems.

The CAPS members who are using the WhatsApp groups have shown a strengthening in community management, making it an essential tool for instant communication, organization, and management of their water systems based on respect for the environment, care and protection of water resources and community health.

They also share their individual knowledge, experiences, and recommendations, such as the characteristics of their water systems (aqueducts) and any work they do, the cleaning and maintenance of water intakes, tanks and reservoirs, and the operation of chlorinators in their communities. 

Once CAPS members learned the benefits of having a communication group, they created their own internal WhatsApp group to communicate with each other, in addition to the group created by Self-Help International, emphasizing that the technology was well received.

This is a great step on the path to empowering communities to share knowledge and develop leaders independently.

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