Great Idea: The Water Canary

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Over the years science has made great advances at predicting the occurrences of hurricanes and tsunamis, which has saved thousands of lives around the world. However, one type of disaster that science has failed to accurately predict and control is disasters related to water supply.  Diseases like cholera and dysentery can devastate populations of people worldwide simply by spreading through the local water supply, and once the disease has begun to spread in this way it is very difficult, time consuming, and inefficient to control the outbreak.

Currently, the only method of testing water for safety and freedom of disease is a very time consuming process that involves the use of expensive equipment as well as trained technicians; both of which are in short supply in the poverty stricken lands where waterborne illness can be most devastating. Sonaar Luthra saw this problem and was the first to start doing something about it.

Working with fellow engineers and UNICEF, Sonaar Luthra is developing a cheap, simplified, rapid response water testing device which he calls the Water Canary (based off the mining canaries that warned miners of dangerous gasses in the mines). This device wouldn’t run on the typical chemical reactions that most water testing processes utilize; instead it would be solar powered. This energy source allows it to be much quicker at determining water safety, and the overall operating system is extremely simple and requires no special training. These simple, efficient devices could potentially be linked through a network which would serve as a first alert warning system that could track the movement and patterns of contaminated water supplies before they got out of control. This device is specifically tailored to be most effective at solving a problem in the areas that previously would be the most vulnerable to it, which makes it a great idea.