IIT Madras Students Built 'Saaf Water' Device To Provide Clean Water To All Indians

Student scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras recently demonstrated the power of combining hardware with artificial intelligence by developing a water assessment device.

The low-cost device could help save millions of lives in India if deployed on the large-scale. Developed by the team that calls itself "Saaf Water," the device has a multitude of uses. It not only senses decontaminated water but also provides a comprehensive summary of the water quality while suggesting purification methods at the same time.

The team won the $200,000 top prize at IBM's Global Call For Code Challenge for 2021 for their innovative technology. Using IBM Cloud and IBM Watson, the students from IIT Madras developed the tech to especially cater to rural areas in India.

Left: Bhandari, Right: Prakash / Saaf Water

The driving force for Saaf Water

Saaf Water was conceptualised when one of the developer, Hrishikesh Bhandari's mother fell ill "due to accidental and unknowing consumption of contaminated water" which came from a public ground water source in Karnataka, December 2020.

"When we came back to Goa, her treatment was going on and the doctor said it's due to a very rare disease caused due to contaminated water," Bhandari told Indiatimes. Three months into her treatment, Bhandari and her teammates decided to develop Saaf Water in hopes of preventing "fatalities and accidents."

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Saaf Water device

An AI IOT platform that employs the combined power of software and hardware, Saaf Water is built on IBM Cloud and IBM Watson. "[Saaf Water] timely monitors the water parameters and informs the community of the contamination in real time." In addition, Saaf Water also suggests purification methods that may be best for different locations and geographies.

It's important to note here that water parameters do not change very quickly, unless the contamination is caused by biological reasons.

What does Saaf Water want to achieve?

Saaf Water's goal is simple and straightforward. With their breathtaking machine, they give local leaders and communities the power to save lives. The data is studied in real time by Saaf Water, which Bhandari says does an approximate analysis of the contamination, based on which a conventional lab test may be pursued.

"We cannot replace full-fledged lab tests. If we try to do that, it will become very expensive and not feasible at all," Bhandari told us.

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Bhandari hopes that ultimately Saaf Water's tech will help reduce dependency on time-consuming test kits and lab tests, making the information about safe water "accessible, inclusive, and quicker."

If contamination is spotted, data is sent across to the concerned stakeholders over a text message or through a user-friendly dashboard online. In addition, the visual indicator on the Saaf Water paraphernalia also signals contamination. In essence, anybody can interact with Saaf Water's tech - with or without tech prowess and the internet.

Why clean water solutions matter

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, one in three people don't have access to safe drinking water, "owing to the contamination of groundwater sources," co-creator Satyam Prakash told Indiatimes.

"When it comes to make solution for a vast number of persons or a vast number of users, it becomes essentially important for any organization to get to the support from community and open source environment because then only we can implement it on a mass-level," Prakash added.

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Saaf Water dashboard

The brains behind Saaf Water received a lot of help and guidance from pioneers in the open source community. "The community around the open source technology is also tremendously active and [they have] high expertise in their fields too," Bhandari said while referring to the help Saaf Water received from the open source community while developing their device.

Bhandari highlighted how hardware integration was made possible by IBM Watson, an IOT platform which allows the immediate registration of a new device, with no configuration requirements. Without writing a single line of code, all devices are automatically logged in Saaf Water database.

The challenges of developing novel solutions

As is true for all novel technology, this too came with its own challenges. On the hardware side, Saaf Water struggled with "isolating power." "There was a lot of noise due to other sensors and we just put this query to the community and the mentors out there responded within one or two hours," Bhandari said.

This community-driven response mechanism worked indeed. In less than two days, Saaf Water had figured out a way to to eliminate noise during power isolation.

The hardware for Saaf Water is completely 3D-printed with a snap fit, for which Bhandari thanked the members of various school committees.

Unmarked

Saaf Water is not attempting to replace lab tests for water contamination. "Certain temperatures are very necessary during incubation," Bhandari explained to Indiatimes while mentioning how 24 hours is a prerequisite for lab tests. "We cannot afford 24 hours in our case because we want to do seasonal prediction and pattern recognition."

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To make the Saaf Water platform more predictive, the team worked on deriving various parameters from existing ones. Based on this, Saaf Water can predict whether a certain place has a chance of contamination or not. "We can predict if the water will go bad, and how it will go bad." "If we try to replace lab tests, we have to include spectroscopy. We have to include many other tests, which includes incubation to definitely... It was very expensive."

Prakash believes that working with big companies can help them reduce costs further so that their "product can become accessible to each and very person who is in need of this kind of service."

"One more special feature about our product is our product has onsite visual indicators," Prakash jumped in to explain. "People try to pay attention since colors play a major role," Bhandari added.

So what's Saaf Water's end goal?

"We want to make the water quality information, more accessible to the people. So for that, we have a dashboard and a SMS based service has been those who don't have internet connectivity. And for those who don't even have mobile phone with them and they're around that water source. So they can get to know about that water quality through these visual indicators," Prakash said while adding that this helps ensuring that the technology reaches those who need it the most.

Saaf Water device

Bhandari also highlighted the high costs associated with building new tech, while suggesting that the cost factor shouldn't demotivate creators for inciting change that benefits all in the longer run. "For something like water, air, food and shelter and even [the] internet, cost shouldn't be a barrier," Bhandari said.

What do you think about Saaf Water's efforts to mainstream clean water for all Indians, and hopefully the world? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

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