The Creative Types

APP:Water Matters

The soft path to water is an alternative way to meet water needs through conservation measures, collection and use of rainfall, local water treatment, and decentralized waste management. This method is an alternative to the hard path that relies on centralized infrastructure that uses single-pipe distribution networks and centralized waste collection. The water matters app will help colonia residents to improve their water management by teaching them about conservation measures and rainwater harvesting. Colonias are unincorporated communities lacking basic infrastructure such as potable water and sanitation systems. There are currently 2,177 colonias across the U.S Mexico border. An estimated nearly 269,000 residents either lack water and/or sewer services or have issues like not having enough water. The outcome will be an easy-to-use bilingual app divided into two sections: conservation and rainwater harvesting. It will include a clickable library of text, links, videos, images, and graphs. The app will also have a calculator that will aid in determining how much rainwater can be collected.