Google-Funded App Aims to Helps Flint Residents Manage Water Crisis

A new mobile app will be able to help residents and authorities agencies in Flintstone, Michigan, managed its ongoing water crunch. Academy of Michigan informatics researchers, with a $150,000 grant from Google.org , developed the Mywater-Flintstone app.

It's core purpose: to show where lead has been found in the drinking h2o and assistance people get make clean water and filters every bit per what the school announced last week.

It also offers step-by-stride instructions for water testing as well every bit other tools to help people determine the likelihood that the water in a home or another location is contaminated. Those who download the app can also meet where line service workers accept already replaced infrastructure that connects homes to the water main and where they're currently working.

Mywater-Flint is bachelor for Android devices and online at Mywater-flint.com. At this point, but virtually a third of the city'southward residents accept had their h2o tested, according to a news release from the Academy of Michigan.

"It's not an piece of cake matter to do," Mark Allison, Banana Professor of Calculator Science at UM-Flint and a Flint resident, said of getting water tested. "Y'all take to go downtown and pick up a special bottle, and so you have to go drop information technology off somewhere and the testing procedure itself is complicated. You tin can't just use any piping in the business firm. The app tells yous how to test information technology and exactly where test kits are available."

The researchers say all homes in Flint "accept some level of run a risk", but the app tin predict which ones are well-nigh affected based on things similar "the age of the property, its location, value, and size" in combination with publicly available data from state agencies and nonprofits.

"It's an contained platform that gives people information they demand and want to know every bit they navigate this complex situation," added Jake Abernethy, assistant professor of reckoner scientific discipline and engineering science at UM-Ann Arbor.

[Image: Evan Dougherty]

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag'southward skillful on fettle and smart abode products. Teaching yoga for nearly x years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected wellness products including fettle trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more. Angela likewise tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to name a few.