We Need Better Quality Not Quantity
October 21, 2010
By Molly White, PopTech Connector
Read Molly's Blog from PopTech
About the Author: Molly White is a member of the PopTech youth initiative called Spark. The project seeks to engage young people at the moment when they might “switch off and lose interest” in what science and technology can provide by offering them a vision of PopTech.
I was struck by the fact that Ned Breslin actually lived in Africa for a very long period of time (around twenty years, I believe) working on the project in which he believes: Water For People. Groups often talk about things they’re doing to make life better for African countries or other places that need help, but Ned actually lived in Africa for this time. He experienced the hardship and the consequences of the lack of clean water and the consequences of getting clean water to countries and then leaving it without any maintenance. He told a heart-wrenching story about a community with a water pump that was installed to allow clean water. This pump broke, and a boy who was raised on clean water died because he was forced to drink the dirty water that his body was not used to. Ned emphasized that these companies that install clean water systems don’t always follow up — a hand pump that they install often won’t work ten years later. Communities are sometimes forced to take apart the pump to get to the water below.
Ned is currently in beta testing with a Droid app called “Field Survey”. You take a GPS coordinate, answer a series of questions, and take a photo or a video. You can also translate it to different language, which is very important for different locations. This goes through to Google Maps and generates maps to help analyze the effectiveness of water systems in different communities. He says, “”We need to get information on whether the investments people make [in companies installing water systems] truly transform lives.” It sounds brilliant to me, although I’d be curious about the level of Internet connectivity in these countries.
I also like that Ned recognized some problems with the project. Tariffs were not being coordinated effectively, and he recognized that some of the financing of the project needed to be changed. He discussed some of the new techniques that they’re using to fix the problems with financing. Furthermore, he discussed future possibilities that could be incorporated into the project: developing sensors for water pumps, for example.
What do you think?
