H2 All

Managing fair distribution of water in arid areas of subsaharan africa

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Inspiration

  • In many arid areas in sub saharan africa water is not distributed fairly and no data is collected to enable statistical analysis and optimization of a rare resource.
  • This solution was built to solve this issue while at the same time having fun learning a new technology.

What it does

  • The aim of this project is to enable management of fair and equal distribution of water in arid areas.
  • The use of technology enables data collection, statistical analysis and optimization of water distribution.

How I built it

  • H2 all consists of two parts h2_all_core and h2_all_wtp

    H2 all core

  • Runs on docker with the following

    • Django server - Front end & Communication services with the water point
    • Mongo db for storing statistical usage
    • Postgres db for storing user data &

H2 all waterpoint

  • This part consists of both hardware and software that manages the waterpoint #### hardware
  • Raspberry pi 3
  • GSM 800L
  • Water flow sensor
  • Solenoid water valve
  • jumper wires, Power supply(5v and 12v)

Software

  • The software running on the Pi was written using python.
  • The handler for the GSM800L uses AT commands via serial to communicate with the GSM800L module.
  • All the handlers communicate with the remaining hardware component.

Usage in a nutshell

  • Person forwards daily token sms to the gsm sim at the water point.
  • Valve opens and associated amount in litres is released, monitored by a flow sensor.
  • This data is sent to the central server via sms and is logged to mongo db for statistical analysis & presentation.

video demo

Challenges I ran into

  • Creating a solution that doesn't use internet connection, as arid areas tend to be in remote
  • Learning new technologies such as GSM.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  • Writing a software that connects using this parts to a functional system,
  • Writing an open source GSM800l library for the raspberry pi 3.

What I learned

  • AT commands, Mongo db queries(using pymongo) and serial communication.

What's next for H2 all

  • Use solar panels to power the project.
  • The technology behind H2 all can be commercialized in urban areas to enable payment of water through pre-existing mobile solutions like M-Pesa.

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