DHIS2 and Solstice: connecting health information to local operations

A team member reviews a mapped water pipeline in mWater with utility staff in Bié, Angola

Health data is most useful when it leads to action. DHIS2 shows a ministry where diarrheal disease is rising. Someone still has to inspect the water source, record the broken pump, assign the repair and confirm it was fixed. Solstice and mWater are built for that follow-up. DHIS2 stays the national reporting system, and the two exchange only what each needs.

Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health and Child Care works this way. It runs its national water, sanitation and hygiene information system on mWater and brings in monthly district health data from DHIS2, such as cholera cases. Ministry staff build their own surveys and decide who sees what. Read how the ministry runs and adapts the system, or see the technical guide to connecting DHIS2.

Who does what

DHIS2 holds the national health indicators, program records, and reporting. mWater keeps mapped records of water sources, health facilities, sanitation, and equipment, with every inspection over time. Solstice runs the work that crosses teams and organizations: who is assigned, what they did, and whether it was fixed.

Information or task	Best home
National health indicators and routine reporting	DHIS2
Program or surveillance records already managed in DHIS2	DHIS2
Maps of water, sanitation, facilities, and infrastructure	mWater, or an existing national registry
Inspections, photos, tests, and repeat visits	mWater or Solstice
Assigning, fixing, and confirming work across teams	Solstice
Analysis across systems	An agreed dashboard or analytics tool that reads from each system

Example: a health facility loses its water

A health facility reports that its water is off or unsafe.
An investigation is assigned to the facility, district, utility, or WASH team.
Inspectors check the source and pipes, take photos and test results, and note which services are affected.
The responsible organization repairs the problem, or escalates it.
A follow-up visit confirms the water is back and records the evidence.
The agreed status is sent to DHIS2.

In Solstice and mWater, these steps run as a workflow. Each step is assigned to a named role, and its result is recorded with the facility. Reporting finds the problem. A workflow makes sure someone fixes it.

Plan the exchange before you build it

Start with the decisions the exchange must support. Then agree which system is in charge of facilities, areas, indicators, and infrastructure. Use the same facility IDs in both systems. Decide how often data moves, who corrects mistakes, and what happens when records disagree. Send as little personal data as possible, and use totals when individual records are not needed.

DHIS2 and mWater both have APIs. The Integrator runs the exchange on a schedule, so nobody has to export and upload files by hand. Larger national setups may add a shared registry or an integration engine, and FHIR where health standards require it.

The Integrator: AI agentic imports bring data in from other systems, and export integrations share your data as CSV, JSON, or GeoJSON

Where this works well

Water, sanitation, hygiene, and infection control in health facilities.
Cholera preparedness and response with health, water, and local government teams.
Disease preparedness that depends on climate and the environment.
Community health work that needs action from outside the health sector.
Humanitarian programs that also report to national systems.

Principles for a system that lasts

Build on national systems. Connect to them rather than starting parallel reporting.
Name one institution and one system in charge of each dataset.
Protect health data. Collect only what each purpose needs, limit access, and follow national law.
Give something back to the people who submit data, such as their records, assignments, or feedback.
Test the whole workflow, from investigation to repair, not only the data exchange.
Budget for running the system. Integrations, user accounts, support, and training all need an owner.

A system you can rely on

Solstice Institute is a non-profit, founded as mWater in 2012, and has run the platform continuously since then. There are no license fees. Each organization owns its data and can export it through the API at any time. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest and backed up daily offsite. The platform had 99.985% uptime in 2024. Partners such as WaterAid hold the full codebase in escrow to protect continuity.

Sources and further reading

See the official DHIS2 pages on health intelligence, platform features, and FHIR; Solstice Institute and the mWater platform overview; and the technical guide to connecting to DHIS2.

Planning a health, WASH, or environmental information system? Contact info@solstice.world and we will help you plan it.