Launched in 2015, STAMP project facilitated the development and experimentation of the service’s information chain, then GARBAL was launched commercially in November 2017 in Gao. Since then, 1,307 calls from 83% of herders and 84,816 USSD requests from 55,821 users have been registered, which demonstrates the users’ interest for the service. In a survey of 400 people conducted in July 2018, 98% of users said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the service, 97.6% acknowledged the accuracy of the information provided and 91.2% said they had made different decisions based on the information received. In 2017, GARBAL service got the 1st award of ORANGE National Social Venture Prize. It was also presented at the 2018 World Water Week, held in Stockholm, Sweden, to highlight its technology for surface water detection in arid environments.
