Kochi, India – January 24 – Two innovative digital tools developed as part of the WADIM project were launched at the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) event in Kochi.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, former Chief Scientist of the World Health Organisation (WHO), former Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research and the current chairperson of M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, unveiled the CLEANSE and AQUADIP apps, both designed to enhance water quality monitoring and support public health.
The CLEANSE (Cleanliness, Sanitation and Environment) app, originally developed in the WIDGEON project and further refined in WADIM, allows communities to record sanitation conditions, habits and health concerns through a questionnaire. The app then assesses the risk of water-borne diseases based on the answers, providing communities with valuable insights into their exposure to waterborne diseases.
The AQUADIP (Advancing Water Quality Understanding and Assessment Digital Interactive Platform) app empowers citizen scientists to collect water samples and access real-time data, helping communities track water quality in their local areas.
These digital tools represent a significant step forward in community-driven water monitoring, reinforcing efforts to protect public health and the environment.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan also released a web application developed as part of WADIM. The web application provides an interactive WebGIS interface for analysing water associated diseases, based on the data from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme of Govt. of India. The application is designed for users with no specific GIS skills, allowing them to explore disease statistics such as hotspot analysis and autocorrelation to understand the disease occurrence trend and distribution across India. The web application, developed using Shiny-R and leaflet as the base modules, would be updated periodically with new inputs to IDSP portal.
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Swaminathan emphasised the critical role of integrated research, combining data from climate, health, and the environment in predicting and preventing future outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
The event attracted significant media coverage, with features in seven newspapers
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