Idea Lab

NextDrop: Water Utilities in India Need Good Data

by Anu Sridharan
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

In places like the United States, we have access to more data than we ever know what to do with. We measure everything from what the average historical temperature is on a certain day for a city, to how good a restaurant is, to how much energy we consume. Because of this access, we base many of our critical decisions on this data (or at least that's the hope). Essentially, because we have had access, we know how to use this data. However, this isn't the case everywhere. Fact: Just because you have access to data, it does not guarantee...

• April 23, 2012
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NextDrop Announces Its First Public Tap Pilot

by Anu Sridharan
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

NextDrop's first 15,000 customers have been primarily middle class families. However, we wanted to see if our solution could be used for people who use a public tap as well (i.e., they have no in home connection). Our service informs residents in India about the availability of piped water in order to help them lead more productive, less stressful lives. To test this out, we recruited 37 families who used a local public tap, and gave them the NextDrop service (voice call instead of SMS) for one month, and then went back to see how they liked it. These were...

• March 1, 2012
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How NextDrop Beat the Indian Bureaucracy to Get Back on Track

by Anu Sridharan
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

I knew something was wrong when I got 28 text messages from the NextDrop system at 9:02 a.m. on Sept. 28. All 28 messages were supposed to go out between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. to our residents (giving the different areas advance notice of water arrival as well as real-time water delivery information) but for some reason, they only got delivered to everyone at 9:02 a.m. -- which basically defeats the purpose of our entire business. NextDrop, winner of the 2011 Knight News Challenge, informs residents in India about the availability of piped water in order...

• October 24, 2011
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This Is How Water Really Works in India

by Anu Sridharan
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

This post was co-written by NextDrop's Jessica Tsai and Madhusudhan B. NextDrop, which informs residents in India via cell phone about the availability of piped water, has been fortunate enough to have the full and sincere cooperation of Chandru, one of the best valvemen in Hubli. It's incredibly helpful to work with someone so willing to share the know-hows of the water system here, because the on-paper description of the process is much different than what actually goes on. Chandru let us tag along as he opened and closed a myriad of valves in his water areas, providing service to...

• September 26, 2011
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