Saaf Water wins the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge
The India based team provides critical insights for safe water consumption through the power of AI
This story originally appeared in IBM Developer Blog
Many of us take for granted that clean, safe drinking water will be instantly available when we turn on a tap in our home. But 2 billion people around the world lack access to safely managed drinking water, and in order for that to change by 2030, the current rate of progress would need to double in 129 countries. The issue is especially challenging for remote communities who have to gather their drinking water from unreliable sources. Helping these communities make informed decisions about their drinking water can greatly mitigate the risks.
For the team in India behind Saaf Water (“saaf” is a Hindi word for “clean”), the inspiration to take on the issue of clean drinking water was personal. Team member Hrishikesh saw firsthand the danger of unsafe drinking water when his mother became ill by drinking from her village’s groundwater supply that was assumed to be safe. Even though the team members are all from different villages, they all have friends or family members impacted by contaminated water. They realized that communities need data and information about their local drinking water to be able to make safe decisions about purification and consumption. Saaf Water is and IoT and AI platform designed to regularly monitor the quality of groundwater and clearly communicate any issues — not just to the authorities, but to local citizens as well.
On November 16, Saaf Water was announced as the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge Winner. The team will receive USD $200K, open source support from the Linux Foundation, and deployment support with the Call for Code ecosystem. You can read more about their story here.
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