The lack of water is one of the most important problems in many African countries. To
guarantee the best results in projects trying to solve this problem, the improvement
of water availability must be accompanied by an improvement of water quality and a
correct environmental monitoring. The use of tecnologies suitable to the countries
object of the intervention and the application of technical solutions tailored to the
local people ability are crucial and directly involve the software solutions adopted
to help water management projects. In this paper the use of GRASS in different
projects in Rwanda and Tanzania is discussed focusing on the potential that FOSS GIS
has showed not only as tool to manage data, but also as an instrument to spread
digital technologies and to educate local people to software use. The possibility to
use GRASS has been investigated also by means of direct contacts and courses given to
selected personnel coming from Africa. The direct contact has allowed the
organization of courses tailored both in the choice of the right software solutions
for the tasks at end and in the choice of the lectures' topics. The participation of
the people to education is fundamental to obtain the best result and to address them
to try the solution of free software. In this way FOSS experimentation is a choice
and not an imposition and they may be able to compare it to commercial solutions and
to test if FOSS can be a suitable alternative. The need to tailor software solutions
to special projects can be carried out also by means of special editions of linux and
GRASS Live DVDs and installation DVDs. This kind of DVD can be created exactly with
the applications needed by the African partners whose advices can be taken into
account to transform the installation in something more familiar and addressing their
most important issues they need. Tailored installation DVD can also help to overtake
the lack of Internet connection, a problem that often limits the spreading of FOSS in
African countries.