ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sonaar Luthra -
Sonaar Luthra is the creator of Water Canary, a water-testing device that collects real-time water-quality data from the field.

Why you should listen

Sonaar Luthra was a writer and educator when he enrolled in NYU's famed  Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) -- a breeding ground for cross-disciplinary thinking. He tells the TED Blog what happened next:

"I wanted to come up with some way of becoming what I was calling an 'urban planner for the global village.' And ... I fell in love with circuitry and with making tangible objects that had real functionality. Next thing I knew, I found myself in a class called Design for UNICEF, taught by Clay Shirky in association with UNICEF’s Innovations Lab.

"I wanted to see what was possible with water, and I was lucky to have an incredible team and the support of faculty that were willing to take on such a huge challenge. We started off as novices but we all became water experts in the process."

Read the TED Blog's full Q&A with Sonaar Luthra, "Waterwise" >>

More profile about the speaker
Sonaar Luthra | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2011

Sonaar Luthra: Meet the Water Canary

Sonaar Luthra: Njihuni me Kanarinen e ujit

Filmed:
440,253 views

Pas nje krize, si mund ta shpjegojme nese uji eshte i sigurt per ta pire? Momentalisht testimet jane te ngadalshme dhe komplekse, dhe pritja e rezultateve eshte vdekjepruese,si ne koleren pas permbytjeve ne Haiti ne vitin 2010. Ndjekesit e Ted Sonaar Luthra rishikon dizajnin e tij rreth nje vegle te thjesht dhe te perdorshme per testimin e sigurise se ujit - Kanarinen e ujit.
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Sonaar Luthra is the creator of Water Canary, a water-testing device that collects real-time water-quality data from the field. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:15
Cholera was reported in Haiti
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Kolera ishte raportuar ne Haiti
00:17
for the first time in over 50 years
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per her te pare ne 50 vitet e fundit
00:19
last October.
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tetorin e kaluar.
00:21
There was no way to predict
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Nuk kishte asnje menyrae per ta predikuar
00:23
how far it would spread through water supplies
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se sa gjat do te shprendahej permes furnizuesve te ujit
00:26
and how bad the situation would get.
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dhe se sa keq do te shkonte situata.
00:29
And not knowing where help was needed
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Dhe mosditja se kur do te kishin nevoj per ndihme
00:31
always ensured that help was in short supply
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gjithmone duke siguruar se ndihma ishte ne mungese
00:34
in the areas that needed it most.
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ne vende te cilat duhet me se shumti.
00:37
We've gotten good at predicting and preparing for storms
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Ne arritem nje predikim te mire ne pergatitjen per stuhite
00:40
before they take innocent lives
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perpara se te marrin jet njerezish
00:42
and cause irreversible damage,
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dhe te shkaktojne deme te mdha,
00:44
but we still can't do that with water,
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mirepo akoma nuk mund ta bejme kete me ujin,
00:46
and here's why.
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dhe do ja u spjegoj arsyen.
00:48
Right now, if you want to test water in the field,
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Tani, nese deshiron ta testosh ujin ne fushe,
00:50
you need a trained technician,
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ju duhet nje teknik i trajnuar,
00:52
expensive equipment like this,
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paisje te shtrenjta sikurse kjo,
00:54
and you have to wait about a day
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dhe ju duhet te prisni rreth nje dite
00:56
for chemical reactions to take place and provide results.
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per nje permbledhje kimike dhe per sjellje te rezultateve.
00:59
It's too slow
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Eshte shum e ngadalte
01:01
to get a picture of conditions on the ground
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per te planifkuar rreth kushteve ne natyre
01:03
before they change,
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perpara se ato te ndryshojne,
01:05
too expensive to implement
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shume e shtrenjte per ta implementuar
01:07
in all the places that require testing.
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ne te gjitha vendet qe kane nevoje per testime.
01:09
And it ignores the fact that, in the meanwhile,
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Dhe e anashkalon faktin se, nderkohe,
01:11
people still need to drink water.
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njerezve akoma ju nevoitet uje per te pire.
01:13
Most of the information that we collected on the cholera outbreak
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Shumicen e informacioneve qe ne mbledhim ne trazirat e koleres
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didn't come from testing water;
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nuk erdhen nga testimet e ujit;
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it came from forms like this,
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erdhen nga format sikurse kjo,
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which documented all the people
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te cilat dokumentuan te gjithe njerezit
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we failed to help.
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qe deshtuam ti ndihmojme.
01:24
Countless lives have been saved
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Pak jete jane shpetuar
01:26
by canaries in coalmines --
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nga kanarit ne Koalmines --
01:28
a simple and invaluable way
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nje metode e thjesht e pa-vlere
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for miners to know whether they're safe.
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per ta ditur se jane te sigurt
01:32
I've been inspired by that simplicity as I've been working on this problem
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Jam inspiruar nga kjo thjeshtesi gjat gjith kohes qe kam qen duke punuar me kete problem
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with some of the most hardworking and brilliant people I've ever known.
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me disa prej njerezve me punetor dhe me te shkelqyer qe kam njohur.
01:38
We think there's a simpler solution to this problem --
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Ne mendojme se ka nje zgjidhje shum te thjesht te ketij problemi --
01:40
one that can be used
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njera e cila mund te perdoret
01:42
by people who face conditions like this everyday.
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me njerez te cilet jane perballur me te njejtat kushte cdo dite.
01:44
It's in its early stages,
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Eshte ne kohet e pare te tyre,
01:46
but this is what it looks like right now.
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mirepo kjo eshte ashty sesi duket per momentin.
01:49
We call it the Water Canary.
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Ne e quajme kete kanarina me uje.
01:51
It's a fast, cheap device
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Eshte e shpejt, dhe paisje e lire
01:54
that answers an important question:
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e cila i pergjigjet nje pyetjeje te rendesishme:
01:56
Is this water contaminated?
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A eshte ky uje i kontaminuar?
01:58
It doesn't require any special training.
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Nuk i nevojitet ndonje trajnim i vecante.
02:01
And instead of waiting for chemical reactions to take place,
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Dhe ne vend qe te presim per reaksione kimike qe te zejne vende,
02:04
it uses light.
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perdor driten.
02:06
That means there's no waiting
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Qe do te thot se nuk ka ndonje pritje
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for chemical reactions to take place,
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per reaksione kimike qe te zejne vend,
02:10
no need to use reagents that can run out
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nuk i nevojiten reagjent te cilet mund te mungojne
02:12
and no need to be an expert
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dhe nuk ka nevoj per te qene ekspert
02:14
to get actionable information.
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per te marre informacione te nevojshme.
02:17
To test water, you simply insert a sample
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Per te testuar ujin, ju thjesht vendosni nje ekzemplare
02:19
and, within seconds,
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dhe per nje sekond,
02:21
it either displays a red light, indicating contaminated water,
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ose shfaq nje drite te kuqe, qe indikon ujin e kontaminuar,
02:24
or a green light, indicating the sample is safe.
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ose nje te gjelbert, e cila thot se eshte uje i sigurte.
02:26
This will make it possible
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Kjo do ta beje te mundur
02:28
for anyone to collect life-saving information
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per secilin qe mbledh informacione per mbrojtjen e njerezve
02:31
and to monitor water quality conditions as they unfold.
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dhe per te monitoruar kualitetin dhe kushtet e ujit gjersa ato nuk vershojne.
02:34
We're also, on top of that,
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Ne gjithashtu jemi, ne krye te saj,
02:37
integrating wireless networking
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duke integruar rrjetat e internetit pa tela
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into an affordable device
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ne nje paisje te mundeshme
02:42
with GPS and GSM.
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me GPS dhe GMS. (satelit dhe rrjet i telefonis mobile).
02:44
What that means is that each reading can be automatically transmitted to servers
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Cfare kjo do te thot eshte qe secili lexim do te transferohet automatikish ne server
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to be mapped in real time.
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per tu hartuar ne kohen reale.
02:49
With enough users,
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Me shfrytezues te mjaftueshem,
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maps like this will make it possible
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hartat sikurse kjo do te bejne te mundshme
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to take preventive action,
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per te marre veprime te parashikuara,
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containing hazards before they turn into emergencies
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per mbajtjen e demeve perpara se te kthehen ne emergjente
02:58
that take years to recover from.
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qe merr vite per ta mbuluar ate.
03:00
And then, instead of taking days
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Dhe pastaj, ne vend te marrjes se diteve
03:02
to disseminate this information to the people who need it most,
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per te diseminuar keto informacione per njerezve te cilet ju duhen,
03:04
it can happen automatically.
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mund te ndodhe automatikisht.
03:07
We've seen how distributed networks,
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Kemi pare se si rrjetet e shperndara,
03:09
big data and information
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te dhenat e medha dhe informacionet
03:11
can transform society.
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mund ta transformojne shoqerine.
03:13
I think it's time for us to apply them to water.
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Mendoj se eshte koha tani qe ti aplikojme ato ne uje.
03:16
Our goal over the next year is to get Water Canary ready for the field
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Synimi yne per vitin e ardhshem eshte qe te marrim kanarinen e ujit per ne fushe
03:18
and to open-source the hardware
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dhe per ta lene hardverin e hapur
03:20
so that anyone can contribute to the development and the evaluation,
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qe secili mund te kontriboj ne zhvillimin dhe evulumin,
03:23
so we can tackle this problem together.
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qe mund ta atakojme kete problem.
03:25
Thank you.
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Faliminderit.
03:27
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
Translated by Liridon Shala
Reviewed by Amantia Gjikondi

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sonaar Luthra -
Sonaar Luthra is the creator of Water Canary, a water-testing device that collects real-time water-quality data from the field.

Why you should listen

Sonaar Luthra was a writer and educator when he enrolled in NYU's famed  Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) -- a breeding ground for cross-disciplinary thinking. He tells the TED Blog what happened next:

"I wanted to come up with some way of becoming what I was calling an 'urban planner for the global village.' And ... I fell in love with circuitry and with making tangible objects that had real functionality. Next thing I knew, I found myself in a class called Design for UNICEF, taught by Clay Shirky in association with UNICEF’s Innovations Lab.

"I wanted to see what was possible with water, and I was lucky to have an incredible team and the support of faculty that were willing to take on such a huge challenge. We started off as novices but we all became water experts in the process."

Read the TED Blog's full Q&A with Sonaar Luthra, "Waterwise" >>

More profile about the speaker
Sonaar Luthra | Speaker | TED.com