Over 33 million people, 2 million acres of agricultural land, and thousands of casualties, including cattle, have been impacted by the recent floods in Pakistan.
To highlight the entire impact of the floods and support ongoing relief operations, Code for Pakistan created an online platform called FloodLight. The platform enables data to be crowdsourced in one location.
Code for Pakistan took the risk of designing, architecting, and developing a digital solution. A solution that gathers crucial data points in the absence of shared data. Enabling the community to contribute to the platform and gain from the insights it offers.
Built on the open-source Ushahidi platform, FloodLight offers data crowdsourcing in one place. A map depicting the impact of the floods across the nation shows specifics of the flooded regions. The extent or severity of the destruction brought on by these floods and continuing relief efforts by volunteer citizens or community services organizations (CSOs).
FloodLight is an information hub that is available to everyone. And has the potential to improve relief efforts by linking those in need of aid with those who can give it.
On top of the FloodLight platform, there is also the opportunity to integrate services that can guarantee the delivery of aid. As well as recovery to the areas impacted by flooding.
Initiatives that are community- and volunteer-led, like FloodLight, provide a platform for participation by communities by converting knowledge into action.
FloodLight, which can be integrated into digital apps and is simple to use and accessible, is quickly becoming the most complete, reliable, and current source of information on the Pakistan floods in 2022.
“We intend to address every significant issue affecting our country and communities. Of course, we won’t succeed completely right away. But we have a clear plan for moving ahead that is built on meticulous planning and faultless execution. According to Code for Pakistan’s Mahwish Khan Arbab, Director of Communications, Community, and Partnerships, FloodLight will serve as the main launchpad for this large-scale initiative.
“We sought to develop a real-time, technology-driven internet platform. That could map relief requirements and provide geo-location-based information on flooded areas. Therefore, we made the decision to use the crowdsourcing platform Ushahidi to develop a dashboard. We use FloodLight to map the data, and we have so far created 8 data points. We have also collaborated with other volunteer organizations, such as PakLaunch and Floodpk.com. In order to integrate FloodLight on their platforms and collect as much data as we can on the floods”. According to Mubassir Hayat, Senior Software Engineer at Code for Pakistan.
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