There are many ways to solve problems with data. One major problem around the world is a lack of access to clean water. According to the United Nations,
- At least 1.8 billion people globally use a source of drinking water that is fecally contaminated
- 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation services, such as toilets or latrines
- More than 80 per cent of wastewater resulting from human activities is discharged into rivers or sea without any pollution removal
- Each day,nearly 1,000 children die due to preventable water and sanitation-related diarrhoeal diseases
A lot of the world, including much of Africa still has limited access to clean drinking water.
To solve this problem, you would need a lot of knowledge of the area and the infrastructure. You would need to be a scientist who studies ecology, water systems, and public health. You would also need to know about water filtration, sanitation, and the ecosystems of rivers. To acquire this knowledge, you would need training and a lot of education, maybe a PhD. You would need to be able to read maps, and have connections to the local population. You would need to have access to villages and people that live along a river without sewer systems.
My research on this problem would be to identify illnesses that come from contaminated water and how to reduce the amount people getting sick. I would set up an experiment between two water sources, one being upstream and one being downstream. For six weeks, I would meausure the number of people who got sick or died because of contanimated water and compare the two sites. My hypothesis is that the people drinking water from upstream will have a lower rate of illness and death. The independent variables in this experiment are the river and time. The dependent variables are the illness and death that occur at each test site. If my theory is correct, I would plan to remake the infrastructure of the area downstream so water from the river is filtered to remove the pollution. After that, I would measure the rates of illnesses and deaths for another six weeks again.