China Daily profiles an enterprising new water quality project in China, MyH2O, that has been pioneered by MBA students from CKGSB alongside their counterparts from MIT and Columbia University.
Judging by the success of the US Embassy’s Air Quality app that later prompted Chinese authorities to publicize their own air quality data for all to see, Chinese people are increasingly aware about environmental issues – especially those close to home.
MBA students from the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) have partnered up with Chinese students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University to set up a crowd-sourcing platform that provides information about the quality of the water in China. The portal is called MyH2O (myh2o.org) and recently received a detailed profile in the China Daily newspaper:
According to the results of a recent nationwide survey on drinking water by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, 280 million people in China are exposed to unsafe drinking water. But information on the precise quality of drinking water and suggestions about how one can improve it is often limited.
“The mapping and data visualization components of MyH2O involve an innovative technique for delivering fieldwork results to the general public in an illustrative format,” said Natalie Cong, an MBA student at CKGSB. “By typing in a simple address, the website will take the user to a vivid summary page, including overall ratings and weighted averages of each available water quality parameter based on how it compares to health standards and the rest of the country’s data. They can click on each parameter to learn more about its health implications and see what remedial measures (such as using filters) can be taken.”
Another MBA student at CKGSB, Jeremy Solomons, is quoted in the article by China Daily reporter Yang Ziman, after he initially got in touch with students at MIT. Solomons says he believes social innovation and social entrepreneurship are essential for the well-being of society as well as for future generations. If the ubiquitous nature of AQI apps is anything to go by, many in China will agree with him.
Please read the full story, Chinese, US students join hands to setup new platform for quality awareness, on the China Daily website.
