IMAGINE: INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR RAPIDLY SURVEYING, MAPPING AND COMMUNICATING WATERBORNE HAZARDS

联合国的可持续发展目标6.1力求使所有人都能普遍和公平地获得安全和负担得起的饮用水。尽管在过去几十年里，全球获得改善的饮用水水源的机会一直在扩大，但在许多地方，特别是在撒哈拉以南非洲，仍然缺乏这种机会。此外，并不是所有改进的饮用水水源都是安全的。使用地点的水质监测是提供安全饮用水的关键。该项目将开发创新技术，以快速调查、测绘和传达水生灾害。英国纽卡斯尔大学将与坦桑尼亚的Ardhi大学合作开发方法，随后在达累斯萨拉姆进行现场测试，目的是在项目结束前在伙伴国家坦桑尼亚建立所有方法和技能。该项目将开发便携式基因测序设备，作为一项多功能技术，在几个小时内全面评估微生物水质。它将把这种分子微生物方法与其他现场可部署的水质评估方法(包括廉价的筛选方法)结合起来，以制定具有成本效益和可靠的调查策略。水质评估方法将与数字技术相结合，以便将数据存储在远程数据库中，并立即进行数据管理、解释和可视化，首先帮助测量员进行现场工作，其次使调查数据可供公众查阅。将开发一个具有位置感知的多平台危险地图的危险通信工具，并通过应用程序内的链接加强与背景信息储存库的链接，包括健康影响、实际建议、观察元数据和世卫组织信息。这一开发将是“移动优先”的，这样的设计可以适应各种手机和平板电脑。使用css和现代浏览器技术将确保将相同的应用程序自动部署到多个设备上，并根据设备的能力动态选择(或减少)内容。水质调查设备和方法以及相关的数字技术将在坦桑尼亚达累斯萨拉姆计划外定居点不同水源日益复杂的四项调查中进行实地测试。根据联合国儿童基金会的数据，46%的坦桑尼亚人仍然无法获得改善的饮用水来源。水媒疾病是坦桑尼亚的地方病，是一种主要的疾病负担，2015年夏季和秋季在达累斯萨拉姆和坦桑尼亚其他地区爆发的霍乱疫情就证明了这一点，该疫情影响了数千人。在该项目中，达累斯萨拉姆给排水管理局等当地利益攸关方、学校教师和社区代表将参与技术开发和测试，特别是帮助确定适合具体情况的有用的危险沟通方法。例如，这些利益攸关方将仔细审查多种视觉水上危险展示选项，以探索其社会可接受性以及易于解释和有用的程度。Ardhi大学的研究人员将协助将关键的背景信息翻译成当地语言。该项目开发的方法和技术不仅将促进坦桑尼亚等低收入国家的水质监测和交流，因为那里的水源性疾病是严重的健康负担，而且还将促进对自然或人为灾难的紧急反应，如大地震、冲突导致的人们流离失所或影响供水的恐怖袭击。

The United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 seeks to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. While global access to improved drinking water sources has been expanding over the past decades, it is still lacking in many places, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, not all improved drinking water sources are safe. Water quality monitoring at the point of use is quintessential for the provision of safe water.This project will develop innovative technologies for rapidly surveying, mapping and communicating waterborne hazards. Newcastle University in the UK will team up with Ardhi University in Tanzania, for the method development with subsequent field testing in Dar es Salaam, with the aim of establishing all methods and skills in the partner country Tanzania by the end of the project. The project will develop portable gene sequencing equipment as a versatile technology to comprehensively assess microbial water quality within a matter of hours. It will embed this molecular microbiological method with other field deployable methods for assessing water quality, including inexpensive screening methods, to derive cost effective and reliable surveying strategies.The water quality assessment methods will be integrated with digital technologies for data storage in a remote database, and immediate data curation, interpretation and visualization, firstly to assist surveyors with their field work, and secondly to make surveying data accessible to the public. A hazard communication tool will be developed with location aware, multi-platform hazard maps, augmented by in-app links to a repository of contextual information, including health impacts, practical advice, observational metadata and WHO information. The development will be "mobile-first" such that designs fit a variety of mobiles and tablets. The use of CSS and modern browser technology will ensure that the same applications can be deployed automatically to multiple devices with the content being dynamically selected (or reduced) depending on the device capabilities.The water quality surveying equipment and methods, together with the associated digital technologies, will be field-tested in four surveys of increasing complexity of different water sources in unplanned settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. According to UNICEF, 46% of Tanzanians still lack access to improved drinking water sources. Waterborne diseases are endemic in Tanzania and a major disease burden, as evidenced by the major cholera outbreak in Dar es Salaam and other Tanzanian regions in the summer and autumn of 2015, which affected thousands of people. In this project, local stakeholders like the Dar es Salaam Water & Sewerage Authority, school teachers and community representatives will be engaged in the technology development and testing, helping in particular with the identification of context-appropriate, useful hazard communication methods. Multiple visual waterborne hazard display options will for example be scrutinized by these stakeholders to explore their social acceptability as well as easy interpretability and usefulness. Ardhi University researchers will assist with the translation of key contextual information into local languages.The methods and technologies developed in this project will not only facilitate water quality monitoring and communication in low income countries like Tanzania, where waterborne diseases are a significant health burden, but they will also facilitate the emergency response to natural or human-made disasters such as major earthquakes, the displacement of people by conflicts, or terrorist attacks affecting water supplies.