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GSSC: AQUAMAA FEB 23 - MAY 23
The Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge (GSSC) is led by IREX and uses the United Nation’s 17 Sustainability Goals to create an international competition where universities from the US and Iraq/Jordan team up and create sustainable solutions based on one or more of the Sustainability Goals. During the last cohort, I participated with my university, which was teamed with Middle East University from Jordan. Together, we chose the Sustainability Goal of Clean Water and Sanitation and created AQUAMAA, a business solution that will help farmers from all over the world have easy access and visibility over clean water.
Problem statement
As part of this competition, every team was given the same four UN Goals to choose from. The lack of fresh water in California and the inaccessibility of clean and fresh water in Jordan led us to pursue the Clean Water and Sanitation goal. Recognizing that most fresh water bodies are located in rural areas and are directly used for agriculture helped us narrow down our target audience: farmers and rural households. Ultimately, we want our solution to increase water quality for everyone and our product should empower those in direct access with water to do so.
“Farmers and households need a way to ensure the quality of water used for irrigation because using contaminated water from air and land pollution will compromise the quality of the crops leading to financial losses to farmers and can be potentially hazardous to consumers health.”
Prototyping
The complete solution has four parts: a pollution detection device, a control center, a filtration device, and a phone app. AQUAMAA begins with the pollution detection device, which along with filtration device, is placed alongside rivers and canals. The pollution detection device, which is connected to the control center, will continuously send measurements. As is visible in the images on the right, the control center has a dashboard which indicates the safety levels of the water. If any measurement is proven to be alarming, the filtration devices will begin to release a substance that will immediately reduce the harmful levels of the water. Simultaneously, the local water sanitation officers will be notified and the existing infrastructure for cleaning water will be put into place.
The final part of AQUAMAA, which the phone app, connects the control center to the locals. This app can be accessed by farmers, local households, and even those living in nearby cities. The purpose of this app is to provide live data regarding the fresh water body located near you. For this app, the user would have to select a location and the app will reveal the nearby fresh water bodies. The user will then select the lake, river, or pond of their choice and check the water quality levels through simple and intuitive visuals. In this way, anyone can easily recognize and understand how safe their water is and what other water bodies could be safer options, if required.
When designing the solution, we first had to understand where and why farmers were facing difficulty with clean water to better improve their livelihoods. So, we interviewed some farmers and locals of the United States and Jordan (watch the Video Pitch to learn about the the end-users’ perspectives on the importance of water). I also brought a sustainability expert, and we combined his perspective with that of the target users to design an effective experience of AQUAMAA.
Solution statement
Throughout the process of researching, ideating, and prototyping, we had to recognize why bodies of fresh water were getting polluted to begin with. In other words, where are all the possible root causes for a river or canal to get polluted? After much discussion, we decided to create a monitoring system that detects pollution levels from the nearby soil and air, in addition to the water. In this way, AQUAMAA can not only detect the water after it’s polluted, but also recognize the reason and prevent further pollution. By connecting the measurements of this pollution to the control center and app, local officials and households can quickly recognize the root problem and look for safer options to avoid health problems.
“Our Smart Water Quality Monitoring and Filtrating System helps the Control Center Engineers and Experts, who want to access and process data measuring the condition of water and adjoining soil and air, at different points along the rivers and canals that transport water from dams and water storage tanks to improve water quality among households and farms whose livelihoods and health are disproportionately and adversely impacted.”
Measuring value
In addition to designing a complete water monitoring and filtration system, my team and I have also put together a market entry paper (look below). Our research have led us to understand that infrastructure for maintaining clean water varies between locations. This information was known during the ideation and prototyping phases of our project, as we ensured that AQUAMAA can be implemented alongside existing infrastructure while also effectively monitoring and filtering the water. Furthermore, we have also mentioned a second step to our solution, where support and resources can be provided to build the necessary infrastructure to sustain AQUAMMA in the long run. In order to measure and achieve success, we must adhere to the local protocols and stay updated with the control center — as well as the app — to maintain the water at safe levels.
Communication
Every week, there was a theme based on the design thinking process that guided us on what we had to accomplish. During the week prior to each meeting, both the San Francisco and Jordan universities would meet as individual teams and finalize on a few options that would be discussed with everyone else. Once the weekly Zoom meeting came, the professor of each university would initiate and facilitate the conversation as all of the students would converse regarding those few finalized options. The teams would collectively decide on the next steps and continue with the design process. During the end of this competition, students from both universities were grouped to work on different parts of the final project: prototypes, the market entry paper, and the video pitch. While I created the video pitch that was sent to the judges, I had the opportunity to contribute to the designs and content of the prototypes and market entry paper as well.
We also utilized Zoom to learn about each other and the cultures we come from, which helped us connect with our teammates and become more mindful about what information we present to each other.
Since our team was binational, we had to meet on Zoom at least once a week. This became a challenge due to the time zone difference and some cultural/religious differences too. Jordan is around 12 hours ahead of California, so students from both sides had to attend the weekly meetings either in the morning or at night. Since this would be unreasonable during weekdays where everyone would be attending classes, we have mutually decided to meet on Saturdays. Furthermore, we had to accommodate our meeting times either due to Day Light Savings or for cultural and religious holidays. However, we continued to keep communication going through the Slack channel in order to stay updated and work at the same pace.
Video Pitch
I am fortunate and honored to make the video pitch and aid in representing my entire team. In this video, I summarized how we incorporated the design-thinking process that resulted in the water monitoring and filtration system we call AQUAMAA. I also included clips of some of the people we interviewed during our user research phase. With engaging visuals and representatives from both universities, the video presented our approach to UN’s sixth sustainability goal: Clean Water and Sanitation.