Everyone’s been through this particular scenario: you’re in an unfamiliar place, bladder full and ready to explode with no restroom in sight. If you’re outdoors (and if you’re a guy) you’ll probably just settle for the nearest tree (which is kind of gross) – if you’re a girl, you’re pretty much out of luck. Well, that’s about to change with Nature’s Call for Android, a pinoy-made app that allows users to see if there’s any restrooms in the vicinity. Made by Team Comfort of Davao during the recently concluded SanHack. The app doesn’t just tell you that there’s a toilet nearby – it also gives you an idea if that toilet is paid or not, and if it has water, soap and separate or common stalls installed for both sexes. The app does this by utilizing Google Maps and also tells you how to get to the toilets in question.
Sanhack is a worldwide initiative aimed at developing innovative software solutions that could answer real world problems in sanitation such as lack of access to clean toilets, high incidence of water borne diseases, limited database, poor monitoring system, insufficient funding, weak sanitation market, and poor health education. Among Sanhack’s partners was Globe telecom who provided the internet connection for the said event. “We have a great pool of talented developers in the country and we are lucky that a lot of them took time to be part of this social good hackathon. Activities like this not only showcase their skills but also gather up innovative ideas to help address pressing social issues, in this case, sanitation which remains a challenge in the Philippines,” said Michelle Santos, Developer Relations Manager of Globe Labs. Winning tools developed during the hackathons will be used to overcome these challenges.