The Why Waste? App

An app to help citizens calculate their water footprint (daily) and take up challenges to save at least a hundred liters of water every day.

We have built an app that allows users to calculate their water footprint using a simple quiz in order to help them understand their water consumption pattern and its impact. On completion of the quiz, the users are provided with a dashboard with analytics that describes their water usage statistics and maps it with global data and peers in their community. 

There are various challenges on the app that help users systematically save large quantities of water. These challenges include both one-time changes as well as lifestyle modifications that can be made.

The app is made using Python frameworks and uses internal research to calculate the water footprint on the quiz. Our research comes from a thorough study of understanding various demographies and the ecosystem.

The frontend development of the app used Flutter and Dart. The app was tested on an Android emulator as well as on an iPhone simulator. For the backend, our app is supported by a cloud-based backend, for which we used Firebase Cloud Firestore (NoSQL Database).

Our app is available on app.whywaste.io.

A NITI aayog (key govt org.) report in India around 2018 shared that around three-fourth of India's rural household do not have piped, potable water and rely on sources that pose a serious health risk. That India has become the world’s largest extractor of groundwater, accounting for 25 percent of the total. In India, 70 percent of our sources are contaminated and our major rivers are dying because of pollution. Its conclusion: ‘India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history.’ Keeping this in mind we have built a solution that allows people to calculate their water footprint making their water consumption pattern and at the same time providing them ways on how they can work to conserve at least 100 liters of water daily. 

We believe that we can solve the water crisis only if every single individual is a part of the change. We hope through the solutions we propagate, we are able to make people more aware of the impact they have on the planet and also help them adapt to new ways, enabling them to become more conscious citizens!

The quiz aims to help people of every background learn about their impact on the environment. We also hope that this becomes an enabler for ecosystems across the country to design and deploy more efficient water solutions based on the needs of citizens in the given region. We also hope to use this to deploy resources to help people better adapt to more formalized solutions to make their water consumption more safe and efficient, reducing burdens on natural resources; all this, while keeping the processes economical. 

The design of the solution has taken a holistic approach where we have taken into consideration the user journey of the app users in mind and beta-tested it amongst a small group of users (from across the globe) before rolling it out for the public. 

In-depth initial research was made on how the water footprint calculator should work (including through various surveys) especially with respect to quantifiable numbers so that the most accurate results are displayed. Post this, research was also done on how people can save 100 liters of water daily by bringing small changes.We built this by first understanding the current habits of users and then building models and methods on how they could possibly optimise this. 

The app was beta-tested in small focus groups to take in the regular user feedback and then necessary changes were made accordingly. 

Our app is already available on both the Play Store as well as the App Store and has seen 1000s of downloads from users belonging to diverse geographies. Our content is from extensive research on the various lifestyle choices of different demographies that impact water usage. We have developed and tested our app as well as made it available to the general public. Our app has also worked expansively with CNN News-18's in its movement "Mission Paani" which is focused on bringing awareness about water conservation to citizens across the country. 

The app uses Flutter, Dart, and Cloudbase together to help create a powerful solution for users to track their usage of water. Along with challenges, descriptive articles and more resources, our app is developed with ease of usage and accurate results in mind.

1. As of now, there have been over 2000 users who have engaged with our app with around 25% of daily user engagement. 
2. Our next year plan is to make it cross 10,000 downloads at least with around 65-75% of user engagement on a regular basis with the app. 
3. This means we want to affect at least 6500 people on a regular basis in a year's time, to create a base that can be used to maximize our reach projecting our long-term growth plan. 

Over the next year, we hope to add more people to our roster of water-conscious citizens, enabling them to understand their water consumption habits and in turn adopt methods to conserve it. 

Thousands of individuals saving over 100 liters of water every day can account for millions of liters of this elixir of life made available for use to the large fraction (almost a quarter) of the world's population that is living in a water crisis.

 - Our first goal was to see whether it was addressing SDG's. Our solution checks the SDG6 and SDG12 goals and we use it as a benchmark to take up any activity or add any new feature to the app.

 - Since our impact depends upon user engagement, our team works on tracking KPIs so that we can get hold of important data on how users are interacting with our app.( for eg: number of people completing daily challenges.)

-  The technology used here is google analytics and firebase. 

Currently, we are experiencing barriers on the Product end - being able to drive user retention more efficiently, keeping in mind user journeys. Along the same lines, we are looking to grow our technical capabilities in order to offer more upscale products and journeys to our users!

We at Why Waste? have a team that consists of individuals who are skilled in their specific domains, are leaders individually, apt in presentation, and possess technical skills at the same time, adding to the dynamics of building a holistic organization. We are a completely Youth-led organization with everyone on our team between the ages of 18-22. 

Our team knows how to connect with individuals and create a difference, and are great educators taking initiatives to educate the community around them. They are innovators who break down the problem into simpler problems and build effective solutions. And all of us are individuals who are able to empathize,  learn from our surroundings, and adapt and inspire through action.

The App is currently supported by various organizations including Global Changemakers, The Shawn Mendes Foundation, State of Youth, and CNN. They support us in outreach and as knowledge partners. 

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