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Program of the Webinar - I
This and the following webinar will mainly be focused on the needs as perceived and articulated by the people on the ground in the developing countries. So, ordinary people related to water, including community leaders will speak about their needs. We expect that these two webinars will not be very technical, nor very structured with any named speakers - it will be more oriented to listening to the stakeholders. There will be more technical sessions with named speakers once we enter into solutions and partnership themes of this series.
The Program:
(10 min) Introduction to the program.
What are the needs in developing countries as identified by the local stakeholders?
(25 min) Approx. 3 Stakeholders, representatives from the communities in Nepal
(5 min) Voice of the stakeholders from our earlier workshops
(5 min) Why Optics? Why AI?
(15 min) Discussions
( 5 min) Conclusions
Time: May 31, 2024 04:00 PM Kathmandu
In this webinar, we briefly introduced the program and listened to the problems and needs related to Water quality as perceived and articulated by the ordinary people (Mr. Bibek Udas, a restaurant owner), social activists (Mr. Shreeram KC from Tarakeshwor Municipality) and community leaders (Mr. Tirtha Maharjan, Saptakhel Community ) and Spokesperson of Lalitpur Metropolitan City (Mr. Raju Maharjan). We also listened to online participants from Cameroon to USA.
This webinar is non-technical because we focus on stakeholders' need. We will have more technical sessions with named speakers once we enter into solutions and partnership themes of this series.
As regards to surveillance and solutions, all participants voiced the need for low-cost, realtime, and simple solutions to test water that can be used by ordinary people at home.
What did the participants say?
Mr. Raju Maharjan
Mr. Raju Maharjan
Ward Chairman Ward 9
Spokesperson, Lalitpur Metropolitan City
There is only one lab for all 29 wards, which came to operation only 2 years ago and not fully operational.
Old water infrastructure and underground contamination with sewage system; which for example led to Cholera outbreak this time and 2 years ago.
Government priority is to ensure supply [than to test/monitor or treat water].
Need for stringent and implementable policies for testing, monitoring, treatment and maintenance of infrastructure.
Lack of awareness among the people;
should not blindly trust bottled/jar water;
need realtime results and regular updates (eg. with an app) to enhance awareness.
Mr. Shreeram KC
Mr. Shreeram KC
Social Activist, Tarakehswor Municipality
Key issue: inadequate water supply, and unknown water quality
Not a single lab for testing water in the municipality;
Municipality is focused on providing piped water to each homes, but there is little concern or research on water source, quality, purification and impact on health
People in municipality use jarred and bottled water assuming it to be safe despite concerns
An app for the people with realtime data on water quality would be nice to have for a futuristic solution
Thomas Ako, PhD
Thomas Ako, PhD
Business Development Manager in Belgium (Originally from Cameroon)
The people of Cameroon are facing similar problems as in Nepal.
We have a lot of "fake" bottled water which is just collected from streams without necessary processing and quality control. We need a quick device to test those water bottles, for example.
This webinar gives me the idea of doing something similar in Cameroon
Learning from your experience, and adapt this further
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