The CityLinks team is excited to announce that it will be implementing the App2Action Challenge in the city of Nablus. The team will work closely with municipal officials and USAID's West Bank and Gaza Mission as well as local stakeholders. Nablus is a Palestinian cultural and commercial center about 50 km north of Jerusalem in the West Bank with a population of over 125,000. It is one of the oldest cities in the world yet hosts a thriving IT sector with over 160 software development companies.

The goal of the CityLinks App2Action Challenge is to develop a smart application that will help address water and/or sanitation hygiene (WASH) challenge identified by the city. Currently, the city faces four main WASH challenges, one of which the App2Action challenge will seek to address:

1. Limited control and ability to monitor the quality of treated waste water discharged from the factories, the percentage of chloride contents in the domestic supplied water networks, water and waste water properties.

2. Difficulties in communication between the municipal management and the Water and Waste Water Department staff. 

3. Low percentage of fee collection for water bills leading to accumulated debts incurred on a number of subscribers.

4. Limited opportunities to connect with experts, innovators, and service providers in the urban water and waste water field.

However, the entire community in Nablus enjoys daily accessibility to drinking water and fair distribution of water to all residents.

You can learn more about how the CityLinks App2Action Challenge works here.