Water contamination and diseases coming from the use of unhealthy water are increasing. At the same time, governments and organisations have a growing interest in communicating this issue. WeTest scientists from the University of Alberta, Canada, need funds to keep developing and testing an APP that will allow every citizen to simply test the quality of their water with the help of a smartphone. Once completed, this will be a great educational tool with a global impact.
The development of the WeTest APP aims at making water testing easier for citizens. The optimization of the mock-up sensor that has been developed still needs some extra work. The testing phase also represents an issue in terms of time and amount of data. In addition, scientists are working on an open source database in order to make data accessible and shareable. The final phase of testing at the Arctic will consolidate its functionalities before making it available on a large scale.
WeTest APP is a concrete step to make citizens science a reality. The APP wants to develop collaborative monitoring and mapping of water quality using new sensing technology in order to enable communities to measure water quality and to log data on a dynamic map using a smartphone interface. The aim of the scientists at the University of Alberta is to make it a large-scale project.
The APP will be part of a kit already available on the market, developed by the NGO Water Rangers that includes a serie of tools for testing water healthiness. Through the WeTest APP we can make water testing a reality in each and every corner of the world. On top of that, creating awareness among citizens about water contamination, through our communication and the direct involvement in the data collection is a powerful way for making make the Global Goals for sustainable development a reality.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
