Using the initial list of topics we developed as guiding markers for our individual researches in the past week, the food and water group reconvened this week to narrow down the areas that we thought had great potential to be improved with smart technologies and wanted to focus on. To recap, we curated this list after our last meeting, when we brainstormed and found consensus on the few key issues that kept resurfacing in our research and potential topics that we could focus our project on:

1. Developing more disaster-preparedness infrastructure for farmers (e.g. weather analysis)
2. Purification of saltwater and stormwater, which is an ample resource given Vizag’s tropical climate
3. Better management and reuse of solid waste and wastewater
4. Providing information to farmers regarding crops, weather and market prices
5. Exploring how geographic information systems (GIS) could be used to increase the monitoring of leakages etc

The first thing we did was to split the group to focus on ‘Water’ and ‘Food’ issues separately. In the aspect of Food, we wanted to start off by understanding the entire system of how agricultural produce gets harvested, the process of food distribution and the players involved in the supply chain, before zooming in to understand how waste is being managed at the household level and the current level of education and participation in such recycling practices. We prioritized researching on the existing state of farming practices and policies, rather than diving right into the myriad of technologies out there. This would also enable us to focus on identifying the particular properties that we are looking out for when developing the idea or product that we want to introduce into Vizag. Moving forward with our research findings, we will aim to identify if there are common problems arising in these different levels of food production and distribution, so that we can develop a solution that maximizes impact across the food sectors and stakeholders.

In the other aspect of Water research, our group identified that the two primary issues we needed to focus on pertained to sanitation and water usage in Vizag. Contamination in water sources can occur as a result of illegal tapping into pipes or untreated waste being dumped into bodies of water. Furthermore, this contamination is aggravated by the absence of enforcement measures, making it hard to conduct stringent checks on the quality of water being supplied to households. With this in mind, we developed goals that we wanted to achieve in solving each part of the problem. Our aim for sanitation is thus, to focus on a stratified system of delivering clean water, instead of having one large source of water to deliver to everyone. In terms of water usage, we decided to focus on fixing leaks and incorporating stormwater into the plumbing system. Our water research following this meeting will be concentrated on finding existing technologies that can contribute, in whole or in part, to the solution that we want to develop for Vizag.