Lack of clean drinking water is a huge problem globally – especially in the developing world, especially for the poor.
There has been great progress. The UN’s Millennium Development Goals provided drinking water to half the world’s population that lacked it, and the current Sustainable Development Goals continue this work, pledging clean water and sanitation for every household worldwide by 2030.
With governments, NGOs, donors and academics focused on these ambitious goals, stakeholders need information about what is happening on the ground.
But while cell phone and GPS technology has made it possible to collect data from water points, it has not so far been easy for governments and organizations to share that data.
WPDx, the Water Point Data eXchange, was created to address this. WPDx is the global platform for sharing water point data among stakeholders – governments, nonprofits, donors, NGO’s and academia.
Sharing this data has the potential to improve water access for millions of people as a result of better information available to governments, service providers, researchers, NGOs, and others.
We created software that enables sharing of water point data in several ways:
- Direct upload of data. Allow providers direct upload of data to the website (and get WPDx out of the email business).
- Data validation. Identify invalid or duplicate data submissions, and make it easier for providers to upload correctly-formatted data.
- Dissemination of water point data by download or charts and graphs.
- Availability. Make data and functionality accessible to mobile devices in the field with limited bandwidth.
The new WPDx web platform has transformed the way that water information flows through the sector. With broad support of organizations around the world, WPDx data improves decision making – and, ultimately, water access – around the world.
See the announcement on the WPDx blog for more details about the project.
