Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) subsidiary Google is planning to launch a new tool that will help people locate toilets as part of a strategy to help India solve its sanitation problem.
Google’s tool will not only be used to find toilets, but people can use it to find clean toilets. According to a study, 70% of Indians do not have access to toilets. It is, therefore, difficult to maintain sanitation and Google is determined to help solve this problem through the tool.
Google has teamed up with the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) in India to come up with the initiative. The company is working on a toilet locator tool that will be featured on Google Maps, thus guiding people to clean restrooms. The tool will initially be launched in Delhi’s metropolitan area. The tool will be simple to use and is as simple as finding a restaurant or a bank using Google Maps.
“The key component is, of course, Google Maps, with the locations of clean toilets now marked on the map in the same way as restaurants, shops, and parks,” reveals one of the sources reporting on the matter.
The search results for toilets will include restrooms in gas stations, hospitals, and malls. Users can search for toilets using Hindu words such as “Shulabh” or “Swach.” Google and MoUD are heavily depending on crowdsourced data from users to determine whether the public restrooms are clean or to issue notifications when various public toilets are closed. The project will be launched in Delhi before the end of this month. Both Google and MoUD hope that the project will be a success and that they will get enough feedback from users before launching it in other cities.
The initiative will be one of the many projects that the Indian government is hoping will go a long way in improving the sanitary condition in the country.
Alphabet stock closed the latest trading session at $779.98.