Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)

Millions of urban residents in the developing world lack clean water supplies and adequate sanitation facilities—both of which put people’s health at risk and hamper economic productivity and growth. Because of insufficient and ineffective utilities in many cities and towns, the urban poor often must line up for hours to get water from public taps or purchase water from vendors at high prices. Additionly, because of poor sanitation, people are vulnerable to outbreaks of cholera and other diseases. Water is also the primary medium through which climate change will impact people, economies, and ecosystems, especially in the wake of natural disasters.

Poor governance and political interference remain key constraints to addressing these issues. Data inaccessibility is also a major hurdle in promoting evidence-based municipal decisions as well as fostering citizen awareness and trust. Data inaccessibility can range from data illiteracy, lack of clarity of existing data, unaligned governance models with storage of data only in central government or agencies, gaps in practicality, or the lack of citizen usage of the data in daily lives.

Non-traditional concepts, the better use of open data, and innovative tools are needed to respond to water challenges in order to improve governance of these systems and increase public trust in water services. With the global expansion of mobile network coverage and mobile phone usage in developing countries, smart technologies can offer innovative routes to achieving water security based on low-cost, scalable and accessible information delivery systems.

While smart app challenges are already considered a useful concept in the international realm, most have occurred at a global scale, implemented by donors or external NGOs. Because CityLinks focuses on municipal governance and capacity building, the CityLinks App2Action Challenge aims to be a tailored, localized, and implementable model for direct future use for municipal governments and USAID Missions. The CityLinks team will provide a event guide as a tool for USAID Missions and interested local governments looking to create similar events. Particularly for local governments, it will provide information on how to get involved in smart app challenges and technology without necessarily needing to have the capacity to hold a large-scale event.

Stay tuned for the next post in our App2Action 101 series - Who are the Participants?

Get caught up by checking out our first post, App2Action 101: What is a Smart App Challenge?