Cell Phone Technology in the Developing World: Improved Access to Water

The developing technology is the most reliable tool that you can use to access the water for personal use, or handling other water-based activities effectively. If people will get access to safe water then they can save themselves from dying due to various water-borne diseases that spread causing various health issues, even deaths. In today’s world, almost everyone has access to mobile phones, and these networks are used to enhance communication for transparency as well as the reliability of water delivery.

closeup of holding smart phone in the cold wearing gloves

Cell Phone Technology to Access Water

Among the total world population, one-fifth of them live in a community of water scarcity, and there are predictions that by 2050 half of the world will go through the same issue. The reason behind such assumptions is the unequal distribution of water, as there is enough water on the 

Earth for all the inhabitants but it stops most of the population from having easy access to water. However, with the development of new technologies and cell phone networks, the new solutions are being created to revolutionize the way to access the water across the globe.

  • Operates irrigation systems

Most of the farmers use cell phones to operate irrigation systems from far away, as instead of walking several miles to water pumps they use to dial the assigned code number that switches on and off the pump. Not only, these cell phones are helping farmers but they are relevant for the effective use of water and prevent the unnecessary wastage of water.

Sprinkler system of green garden in sunset

Cell Phones Operate Irrigation System

  • Solves the water supply issues

Cell phones play a greater role in solving the water supply issues as companies can predict the availability of water in the cities with limited supplies. Most of the NGOs are using data-tracking technologies to collect the data regarding the supply of water in the projects and monitoring the water with cell phones.

  • It provides supply mapping

Nowadays there are various mobile applications that you can use to collect, analyze, and monitor the supply of water, which helps the people to gain access to clean drinking water. You only need to search for the location, and you will get the results of the locations where you can get the clean drinking water.

Mostly, we don’t relate the water scarcity issues with mobile phones as it helps people in the developing world to get access to safe water. The access to water not only includes H2O, but the information regarding its cleanliness, distribution, infrastructure, and everything that is needed to manage the precious resources.

Can mobile phones solve the crises of water?

The water crisis affects everyone and every country regardless of rich or poor, and it includes everything whether it is water scarcity issues or public health issues. So, it is essential to take care of both water and public health that are more accessible to waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, and it arises from unsafe water. If the water will be unsafe then it can lead to unnecessary deaths and more from water-borne diseases, so make sure to check everything before you get access to water.

How mobile phones can improve the consistency and safety of water supplies?

More than researching the better infrastructure, you should go to the site of water systems to be sure regarding the quality of water. You can use simple tools to improve the communication between the water managers, and the agencies supplying water, so that you can efficiently manage the usage of water. This is where you need mobile phones, these are cheap, easy to use, and the most reliable solution as these can transmit various information including images and GPS points.

In most of the areas, the poor information flows between the field staff and institutional managers of various countries, as the technicians regularly send the water samples to the laboratory, but they rarely receive the test results. 

Without the feedback, the technicians cannot determine the water-borne diseases, and the safety of water but the mobile-based data-sharing system allows them to efficiently receive the results. 

Due to the improvement in the reliability and safety of water supplies, various NGOs are now using mobile phones into their monitoring projects to get results efficiently. But you should remember that the implementation of mobile phone solutions is not that easy, as, with the growth of mobile coverage, the networks are generally weakest in the places where information flows are critical.

How Smartphone sensors detect dirty water?

No doubt, today the rates of bacterial contamination are less in our drinking water, but you still need to check the water from time to time, especially in the open water tanks. Mostly, the bacteria are present in the lake or stream water, and mainly in the water that comes from the taps, which indicates the contamination of fecal.

 The bacteria mainly arise from contaminated drinking water that causes due to leakages from the sanitation system, and that water also includes bacteria, viruses, and parasites. It is best to avoid such contamination as it can cause diarrhea, and cholera which can cause vomiting or other health issues. Therefore, it is essential to detect such diseases at early stages to protect the public health from unwanted health issues.

Business casual woman overhead view using smart phone outside

Phone Sensors detect dirty water

A nano detective in the phones

The sensor of your phone uses some magnetic-particle technology that seeks out the bacteria with the use of tiny and nano-sized magnets that are measured by a special device mainly controlled by your phone’s app.

 If you want to analyze the contamination you need to take the water sample and add a few tiny particles of magnet that are designed to detect the bacteria. After that, insert the sensor strip in the water sample, and is also another magnet that attracts the magnetic particles. Then, insert this strip into a device for the measurements of electrochemical that detects the bacteria in the results.

Smartphone can detect the norovirus in water

A Smartphone app can detect the signs of norovirus that makes people sick, and is also known as the winter vomiting bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea in crowded situations. Before starting with testing the norovirus, you need water samples to the paper chip that includes small beads.

 These beads also have the antibodies against the norovirus on their surface as when the particles of the virus are there, they bind to multiple beads. When you view them through the microscope of your Smartphone, you will see the clumps producing the fluorescence then you need to use the Smartphone app to analyze the lit pixels and convert them to the norovirus particles.

Comments are closed.