In emergencies like fire outbreaks, people cannot vividly describe the problem over the phone.

Again, they have difficulty describing the precise location or direction to the site of the problem over the phone.

Fortunately, two students at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Jude Selase Kwashie and Genevieve Annan have developed an app dubbed 'Call Away' to provide a live feed/capture of an emergency/utility problem, call up for technical assistance, and monitor responsive timelines of problem resolutions. 

This system makes issuing and managing reports to utility and emergency service providers like Ghana Water, ECG, Fire and the Ambulance Service more convenient.

The App aids users in lodging complaints regarding electrical faults, water problems, fire outbreaks and the like to the service provider.

Call Away also enables utility firms to respond and manage issued reports accordingly. It is designed to serve as an alternative to the already existing approach to report management used by most utility firms, popularly known as the Toll-Free system.

The Toll-Free system has certain flaws and inconveniences that inspired the development of Call Away.

How it operates

With Call Away, the user can take a video or capture an image of the problem.

The application then generates the exact location of the recorded video or captured image. The user then submits this information to the respective utility service firm.

The user can also add a voice recording to describe the problem further. There is also an optional description section where the user can briefly input text to describe the issue.

With all this information, utility firms can quickly locate the site and equip themselves appropriately before fixing the issue.

To learn more about the App and join the waitlist for its release, partners, stakeholders, or investors can visit https://csapps.knust.edu.gh.