Device To Track Water-Borne Diseases

The Water Canary, a device that crowd-sources water quality can help fore-stall the spread of various water-borne diseases. This device checks supplies in real-time, alerting users to possible infections. It is also capable of uploading the data, thus allowing scientists to supervise the location and movement of the outbreaks.

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Launching the device at the TED Global conference in Edinburgh, researchers said they hoped eventually to give the units away free of cost. According to the World Health Organisation, more than three million people die each year from water-related disease. Co-founder and TED fellow Sonaar Luthra said, "Water Canary is an open source tool to rapidly test water and transmit information in real time to be instantly assessed." He further explained why such a device is needed. "Currently water testing is too slow and too expensive. We only test water in hindsight," he told the TEDGlobal: Technology to crowd-source clean water - BBC News. "When cholera hit Haiti there was no way of knowing how fast it would spread," he added.

The device will be capable of testing both micro-biological and chemical contaminations using spectral technology. It will render split-second information on whether the water is drinkable or not, through a red or green light on the device. Mr Luthra is aspiring to get manufacturing costs to below $100 although he imagined the end user will pay much less. "Ideally we will give it away because it will be the data that is really valuable," he said. The device will be capable of wirelessly sending GPS-tagged data from any available network. "We will be collecting data off thousands of devices from which many conclusions will be drawn. This is all about information and empowering people with real-time water information," he added.

Such information could prove priceless for governments all over the world keen to control diseases and environmental disasters. More people each year die because of unsafe water than die in conflicts, according to Mr Sonaar but currently there are no agreed method for assessing water quality. "The metric for measuring water is different in many cases. This device could help make a decision on what constitutes safe water," he said.

The project originated from the New York University Interactive Telecommunications Programme, which focuses on human-centric technology design. Mr Luthra is hopeful that over the next year he will be able to get the device ready for use in the field but he is unwilling to put a date on this. "So many tech firms promise things that they can't deliver. We wouldn't want to disappoint people by saying they could have it and then disappointing them," he said.

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