LightTechnologiesMW/water-disinfection-ai

AI-enabled climate-adaptive water disinfection system for low-resource environments # Light Technologies — Adaptive Water Treatment System **Controlled-release chlorinated resin with AI-optimised disinfection and community feedback for rural Malawi** --- ## Overview In Malawi, 5.8 million people lack access to safe drinking water. Climate-driven floods and droughts increasingly contaminate water sources, raising the risk of cholera and diarrhoeal disease — leading killers of children under five. Conventional point-of-use disinfection systems fail rural communities because static chlorine dosing cannot adapt to the variable water chemistry caused by changing environmental conditions. Light Technologies has developed a **controlled-release chlorinated resin** embedded in a low-cost household device that passively treats water without electricity or trained operators. An **AI/ML system** trained on real-world IoT sensor data dynamically predicts and optimises disinfection performance across flood-affected and drought-concentrated water sources. An **SMS/USSD feedback layer** allows community members to report device performance and water quality concerns from basic feature phones — no internet or smartphone required. This repository contains hardware documentation, pilot sensor data, and model development code for the system. A full open-source release is a formal deliverable of the current funding phase (target: Months 9–12). --- ## Key results to date | Metric | Result | |---|---| | E. coli reduction | >95% under controlled conditions | | WHO-compliant Cl₂ residual | 0.2–0.5 mg/L consistently achieved | | Field units deployed | 5,000+ (NCST-funded pilot, Malawi) | | Sensor observations (live) | Ongoing — target 100,000+ readings | | Willingness to adopt at $5–10/unit | 75% (6,000-household survey, Malawi & Rwanda) | The project was shortlisted for the **Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation** by the Royal Academy of Engineering. --- ## How it works ``` Water source (variable quality) │ ▼ ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ Chlorinated …