WSSP holds Watsathon to seek IT-based solutions

32 teams participating will work on ideas and find solutions to problems such as water contamination etc

PESHAWAR: Struggling to tackle the issues of water and sanitation, the premier water supply and sanitation company has decided to turn to a more modern and technologically savvy generation to conjure up digitally-enabled solutions by organising a three-day ‘Watsathon’ — a hackathon on water.

Software engineers, programmers, data experts and thinkers from across Pakistan teamed up in 32 groups to give propose innovative and information technology (IT) based solutions to water and sanitation problems faced by the Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP).

Held at the National Incubation Centre in Peshawar, the three-day event kicked off on Friday in collaboration with the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC). Local Government and Rural Development Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai inaugurated the event.

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Each of the 32 teams participating will work on ideas and find solutions to the problems such as water contamination, revenue generation, disposal, attendance, waste management, electronic waste containers management, waste segregation and disposal.

The output idea or software should be user-friendly and can easily be implementable for WSSP to improve the delivery of its services.

The teams will present their ideas to a panel of judges comprising Murtaza Zaidi, Nabila Farman, Sara Hashwani and Kiran Rabbani. The winning team will receive a cash prize of Rs100,000 while the runner up will receive Rs70,000 and the second runners up will get Rs50,000.

Furthermore, WSSP will implement the idea and software.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2019.