"By not addressing the global water crises, none of the UN Sustainable Development Goals will be achievable. Clean Water & Sanitation [SDG 6] is interconnected to all SDGs"
The water crisis is a tragedy of epic proportions. A large part of humanity - more than 2 billion people - do not have access to safe drinking water. An equal number of people do not have access to safe sanitation as well.
This post is part 7 of a series of 8 posts by TIGRIS co-founder, Saud Siddique, detailing thoughts on the current global water crisis, and recommendations on how it can be effectively addressed.
7. Role of Technology and Internet of Things (IoT)
There is a significant scope to utilize technologies and Internet of Things (IoT) in solving the water crisis. For example, one of the challenges of Water PPPs has been lack of measurement of progress. The absence of reliable impact tracking has presented barriers to attract Impact Investors as well.
There is an opportunity to develop a platform, using IoT and blockchain, to provide for transparency in investment monitoring, and effective impact data measurement. Such a platform will allow:
Monitoring & Evaluation: the platform will store the project performance data in tamper-proof blockchain;
Local Community Feedback: the platform will enable social engagement with local communities, thus connecting sponsors directly with the communities being impacted.
A simple visual depiction of this idea is shown in Diagram 9 below:
Diagram 9 - Role of IoT and Technology in Strengthening Water Projects
Such a digital platform would allow for assessment in real-time of an independent generation of performance as well as impact data to validate fulfilment of impact objectives.
Building such a technology-based platform can also help government entities bring transparency to project procurement and funding. This can be of immense benefit for:
data driven policy making
assessment of publicly funded projects; and
transparency in project management, asset deployment and utilisation
Reliable IoT enabled data monitoring and tracking systems can help address the fundamental lack of trustworthy investment systems, including the issue of ‘green-washing’, an impediment for mobilizing funds from Impact Investors.