Wireless monitoring of a distributed environmental health intervention in Haiti

Abstract

Each year, countless children die in underdeveloped countries as a result of water-borne illness. We present a prototype system, currently in pilot testing by a Haiti-based NGO, that supports increased transparency and scalability for data assimilation efforts in the context of a distributed water sanitation project. Wireless technologies such as Short Messaging System (SMS) and Near Field Communication (NFC) are integral to the system. Due to the use of low-cost, off-the-shelf mobile hardware and open-source software, and the selection of SMS for the network transport layer, the system is affordable yet reliable enough to be deployed where power and connectivity may be extremely intermittent. This includes regions such as rural Haiti, home to over half the country's population, as well as disaster areas, such as Port-au-Prince, the urban epicenter of a recent devastating earthquake---both locations where the system is currently being deployed.