Science Chat #20 | Tech for Community Monitoring

In this chat, we continued the conversation of the Tech for community monitoring session that took place during the RightsCon (a conference focused on making tech available for human rights issues). We discussed options to set up a community moderating campaign in the Valbona Valley, together with Cahterine Bohne from TOKA (The Organisation to Conserve the Albanian Alps), Zamira (Consultant, Center for Human Rights, American Bar Association), Flaviano Bianchini (Founder, Source International) and Jess and Vera of the River Collective. We seek concrete ways to make technology available to local communities that suffer from hydropower development. We hope to lauch programs to monitor waterflow and turbidity in July 2021 during the Students for Rivers Camp in Valbona Valley. We discuss options and possible collaborations to make this effective. The data collected can support not only the fight for the Valbona River, but also help protect rivers in Albania and the rest of the Balkans.