Using IoT and Cloud Analytics to to Keep Clean Water Flowing for Charity: Water
Currently, nearly 785 million people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. Over the past 13 years, charity: water has provided clean water to local villages and communities by constructing more than 50,000 wells in 28 countries. Once the water supply is established, the next challenge is maintaining it long-term. However, wells can break, and regular maintenance is often overlooked, forcing communities to revert to using unsafe water sources. These are the harsh realities many people face. Charity: water recognized the opportunity to use digital technology to address these issues. To enhance its capabilities, it collaborated with Twisthink, experts in artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT connectivity. By partnering with Twisthink, charity: water aimed to learn, collaborate, and create a reliable and scalable long-term platform for water access. Instead of merely building wells, the organization sought a digital solution to improve water access. Utilizing a human-centered design approach, Twisthink led a diverse team of water specialists to explore how technology could ensure the constant flow of water and reduce downtime for pumps. Ultimately, they developed a cost-effective IoT pump sensor using AWS to effectively monitor the status of 7,300 water pumps in remote areas of Africa and Asia.