{"id":28341,"date":"2018-01-25T11:10:21","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T15:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?p=28341"},"modified":"2018-01-25T10:31:51","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T14:31:51","slug":"portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm","title":{"rendered":"Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A start-up company out of Portland State University is harnessing commercially available sensor technology to make a difference in health initiatives for developing nations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SweetSense Inc., a spin-out from the university\u2019s Sustainable Water, Energy and Environmental Technologies (SWEET) Laboratory, manufactures and distributes products developed in the laboratory to the global health community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe SWEET lab has developed a custom data collection and analytics platform that can be applied to improve rural international development. SweetSense is working to get the products into the hands of the people who need them, where they can make a real difference\u201d said Dexter Gauntlett, the business development director for SweetSense. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SweetSense combines a variety of sensor technologies with cellular and satellite technology for data reporting. \u00a0\u00a0Those products are designed to be installed in community- and household-level fixtures like borehole water pumps, latrines and hand-washing stations. The collected data is transmitted to the Sweet Data online collection tool that can be downloaded from any browser with a protected login. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One area where the products are already making a difference is Kenya.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The company is part of a 21-organization public-private partnership dedicated to increasing the amount of citizens in Kenya that have regular access to water, and improving water management. Known as the Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development or Kenya RAPID, the effort is led by the Millennium Water Alliance and the United States Agency of International Development. It includes partners across many industries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kenya is a very dry, drought vulnerable area that makes farming and raising livestock for sustainability very difficult. Research has shown that only 37 percent of the population has access to readily available water. Kenya RAPID wants to increase that to at least 50 percent. To do that, the group is focusing on five counties, Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana and Wajir.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The effort has many moving parts. SweetSense is working to improve water management through the use of data. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe emphasis of the past 30 years in the development sector has been installing as many water pumps as possible in the area because it was believed that more pumps meant more water,\u201d said Gauntlett. \u201cBut 50 percent of the pumps fail in the first few years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the past when a pump failed, officials were only made aware of it through citizen complaints or through employee spot checks that were performed at lengthy intervals. In some instances, a pump could be down for a year before receiving maintenance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SweetSense and the Kenya RAPID team are using the company\u2019s sensor technology to revolutionize and speed up this process and drastically decrease the days that a pump is down. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe believe that it&#8217;s cost effective to invest in systems that use remote sensor communication and alert a technician immediately when the pump needs serviced,\u201d said Gauntlett. \u201cArea officials are able to monitor water pumps from their desks, they no longer need to drive long distances to check the pumps. They can fix pumps before they completely malfunction and also make informed decisions on the maintenance scheduling.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The technology is already making an impact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSweetSense sensors have been very useful in providing real-time information on functionality in remote locations of northern Kenya,\u201d said Doris Kaberia, chief of party and Kenya programs director from Millennium Water Alliance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to Kenya, SweetSense has deployed their products in India, Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Haiti and other countries. More than 1,000 of its sensors have been installed worldwide. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Top image: SweetSense SAT, a product of SweetSense Inc is shown. The product is currently being used to monitor water pipe functionality in Kenya. (Photo courtesy of SweetSense.)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SweetSense Inc, provides sensors and data collection platforms to global health initiatives in developing countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":28340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,52,1],"tags":[103,109,551,349],"class_list":["post-28341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-newsfeed","category-technology","category-uncategorized","tag-news-2","tag-news-ticker","tag-portland-state-university","tag-technology"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SweetSense Inc, provides sensors and data collection platforms to global health initiatives in developing countries.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SweetSense Inc, provides sensors and data collection platforms to global health initiatives in developing countries.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Environmental Monitor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-25T15:10:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Sweetsense-936x1024.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"936\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mindy Cooper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mindy Cooper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mindy Cooper\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c69b933b32e9c27abdc2de4090bee515\"},\"headline\":\"Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-25T15:10:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm\"},\"wordCount\":614,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/Sweetsense-scaled.png\",\"keywords\":[\"news\",\"news ticker\",\"Portland State University\",\"Technology\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Newsfeed\",\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm\",\"name\":\"Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/Sweetsense-scaled.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-25T15:10:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c69b933b32e9c27abdc2de4090bee515\"},\"description\":\"SweetSense Inc, provides sensors and data collection platforms to global health initiatives in developing countries.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/Sweetsense-scaled.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/Sweetsense-scaled.png\",\"width\":2341,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"SweetSense SAT, a product of SweetSense Inc is shown. The product is currently being used to monitor water pipe functionality in Kenya. (Photo courtesy of SweetSense.)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Environmental Monitor\",\"description\":\"Application and technology news for environmental professionals\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c69b933b32e9c27abdc2de4090bee515\",\"name\":\"Mindy Cooper\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/7f706ed380378d288905c4fc1ea2731a5d5be3cdc1ef40edb9be25687a44b724?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/7f706ed380378d288905c4fc1ea2731a5d5be3cdc1ef40edb9be25687a44b724?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/7f706ed380378d288905c4fc1ea2731a5d5be3cdc1ef40edb9be25687a44b724?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mindy Cooper\"},\"description\":\"Mindy Cooper is a freelance writer focusing on science and engineering topics. She has a master's in mass communications and can be contacted through her website, http:\\\/\\\/www.daytonfreelancewriter.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/mindycooper\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya","description":"SweetSense Inc, provides sensors and data collection platforms to global health initiatives in developing countries.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya","og_description":"SweetSense Inc, provides sensors and data collection platforms to global health initiatives in developing countries.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm","og_site_name":"Environmental Monitor","article_published_time":"2018-01-25T15:10:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":936,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Sweetsense-936x1024.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Mindy Cooper","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mindy Cooper","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm"},"author":{"name":"Mindy Cooper","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c69b933b32e9c27abdc2de4090bee515"},"headline":"Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya","datePublished":"2018-01-25T15:10:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm"},"wordCount":614,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Sweetsense-scaled.png","keywords":["news","news ticker","Portland State University","Technology"],"articleSection":["News","Newsfeed","Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm","name":"Portland Start-up Takes Part in Coalition to Bring Water to Rural Kenya","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Sweetsense-scaled.png","datePublished":"2018-01-25T15:10:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c69b933b32e9c27abdc2de4090bee515"},"description":"SweetSense Inc, provides sensors and data collection platforms to global health initiatives in developing countries.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/portland-start-takes-part-coalition-bring-water-rural-kenya.htm#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Sweetsense-scaled.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Sweetsense-scaled.png","width":2341,"height":2560,"caption":"SweetSense SAT, a product of SweetSense Inc is shown. The product is currently being used to monitor water pipe functionality in Kenya. (Photo courtesy of SweetSense.)"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/","name":"Environmental Monitor","description":"Application and technology news for environmental professionals","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c69b933b32e9c27abdc2de4090bee515","name":"Mindy Cooper","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f706ed380378d288905c4fc1ea2731a5d5be3cdc1ef40edb9be25687a44b724?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f706ed380378d288905c4fc1ea2731a5d5be3cdc1ef40edb9be25687a44b724?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f706ed380378d288905c4fc1ea2731a5d5be3cdc1ef40edb9be25687a44b724?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mindy Cooper"},"description":"Mindy Cooper is a freelance writer focusing on science and engineering topics. She has a master's in mass communications and can be contacted through her website, http:\/\/www.daytonfreelancewriter.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/author\/mindycooper"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28341"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28346,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28341\/revisions\/28346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}