MoMo Cairo – Sept. 26th – Water Hackathon Cairo Launch
Posted on: September 11, 2011 – Filed under: Cairo
On September 26th, 2011 water experts and software developers converged on the headquarters of the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) to discuss areas of potential collaboration between technology experts, water experts and end-users which served as the first preliminary meeting for the Water Hackathon Cairo that will be held on October 21st-22nd. Moderated by Sherif Tawfik, the panel included a members from the public, private and Non-governmental organization sectors; Dr. Khaled Wassif from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Dr. Mostafa Moussa from the research and development department of Orange, Khaled Abu Zeid the Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe.
The discussion amongst the speakers and the audience covered a wide area of water resource management challenges within Egypt. Although some of these challenges are economic and physical infrastructure related, many of the challenges can be alleviated or lessened through greater use of software and technology. Dr. Wassif discussed the severe mismatched between the supply and demand of water with regards to crop patterns and the lacking of efficient billing infrastructure in place in Egypt. Khaled Abu Zeid discussed the need for increased monitoring of water supplies, various ideas for billing irrigators, and the lack of public awareness of an individual’s actual water use. Dr. Moussa discussed online monitoring of water resources.
The Mobile Monday event was a good first step in generating ideas for the Water Hackathon. While software development and ICT may not be able to solve all Egypt’s water challenges, the Mobile Mondays event identified some challenges that have the potential to be addressed through software and technical solutions. The Water Hackathon Cairo will offer software developers to work with water experts and end users to solve these problems in a fun, collaborative and competitive environment.