IBM is pumping more than $6 billion (R57.9 billion) a year into researching technologies, which – it believes – will help alleviate water shortages in countries around the world. IBM Sub-Sahara Africa CTO Clifford Foster says the initiative is aimed at starting discussions with heads of states on issues such as water contamination and shortages.
"Regardless of industry or geography, smarter water management is an issue faced by every business and government on the planet," says IBM Big Green Innovations VP Sharon Nunes.
The development of IBM's smart water offerings is a result of IBM's Big Green Innovations initiative, a company statement says. The initiative, which was announced in October 2006, as part of IBM's $100 million (R965 million) investment in 10 new businesses, has concentrated its efforts on water management, alternative energy and carbon management.
“In SA, we plan on finding opportunities for the private industry to participate in our water management initiative,” says Foster.
Developing new technologies
The computing company has been working on various water management projects around the world, Foster says. This includes collaborating with The Nature Conservancy to build practical Web-based tools for river basin management, and also IBM's Smart Bay sensor, which monitors wave conditions, pollution levels and marine life.
The Smart Bay system is the result of collaboration between IBM and the Marine Institute of Ireland. The system provides real-time information to stakeholders in the Irish maritime economy, runs on a cloud computing platform, and is able to predict water conditions critical to those stakeholders.
IBM plans to spread information collected on water conditions and contamination to African stakeholders using technologies such as mobile phones, which are predominant on the continent, Foster says.
“We have started discussion with African heads of state about introducing our instruments to detect water quality and contamination. The point of this all is to lessen the impact of water crises on the environment as a whole.”
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