TITLE:
Can One Drink Informal Water Alternatives Directly? Using Mobile Phone to Establish Trust in Quality
AUTHORS:
Elisha Akech Ochungo, Gilbert Ong’isa Ouma, John Paul Odhiambo Obiero, Nicodemus Abungu Odero
KEYWORDS:
Signal, Informal Water, Quality, Trust, Android Application, Drink
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.11 No.10,
October
12,
2019
ABSTRACT: The informal water market in cities within the Global South is expanding, thanks
to drought associated water shortage challenges and other socio-hydrological
factors. A midst the growth is the inherent information signal asymmetry
driven mainly by the vendors’ unwillingness to share the actual quality data
of their source water with their customers. As a result a big mistrust environment
has been created as currently; the customers have no mechanism to
verify the water quality in real time. This paper aimed at developing an android
application software system to fill the gap. The system is to operate the
water vending business landscape as a trusted social network site (SNS) using
handheld mobile phone devices. An Agile-Scrum methodology was utilized as
it allows for quick changes to the system as necessary. An android platform
was chosen as the initial Operating System (OS) to run the software system
due to its faster global outreach capability. Specifically, Android Studio 3.4.2
IDE running on Windows 10 was deployed. And the primary languages used
within the IDE were; Kotlin for the functionality and XML for the user interface
(UI). Additionally, the Firebase SDK tools were used for cloud-based database
functionality. The results of the prototype include; user side access and feedback
exchanges, backend side supports and other added functionalities. The
paper is of the strong view that since the system works on anytime-anywhere
modality, then it is possible that one can drink the informal water directly. The
system is recommended for full scale trial in the affected cities.