Water quality app wins IBM Call for Code challenge
IBM's global Call for Code Challenge encourages developers to use their skills to drive positive and long-lasting change across the world and is now in its fourth year.
2021's winner is Saaf Water, an accessible water quality sensor and analytics platform created, in particular, for people living in rural localities.
Saaf Water's team of India-based developers have been personally affected by unhealthy water conditions that led to community deaths and illness, inspiring them to create a solution to help save lives.
The Saaf Water team will receive $200,000 and support to incubate, test, and deploy their solution from the IBM Service Corps and experts in the Call for Code ecosystem. The India-based team will also receive assistance from The Linux Foundation to open source their application so developers around the world can improve, scale, and use the technology.
Call for Code is the largest and most ambitious effort to bring together the world's problem solvers to take on pressing societal issues using the latest advanced technologies. Finalists are judged by panel of some of the most eminent worldwide leaders in sustainability, business and technology, including former president Bill Clinton.
"It's incredibly inspiring to see the Call for Code global movement continue to grow, now with more than 500,000 developers and problem solvers participating across 180 nations," says Bob Lord, senior vice president, worldwide ecosystems at IBM. "What makes Call for Code unique is the impact it is making on the ground through our deployments in communities around the world. The potential of these technologies, like Saaf Water, are vast and have the potential help save lives."
Four additional climate solutions have also been recognized. Green Farm, an app to make agriculture more sustainable by, among other things, connecting local producers and consumers to each other, was awarded second place and $25,000. Project Scavenger, an app to enable individuals to responsibly dispose of their devices, was awarded third place and $25,000. Honestly, an online browser extension aimed at passing supply chain transparency to consumers, was awarded fourth place and $10,000. Plenti, a mobile application designed to make inventory tracking and waste measurement processes user-friendly and easy to do at home, was awarded fifth place and $10,000.
You can find out more about the finalists on the IBM site.
Image credit: IBM