Bukavu Propre

Bukavu Propre is a mobile app that connects citizens and the city council to clean up Bukavu together. It turns every phone into a tool to report and solve waste problems.

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Inspiration

In Bukavu, a city of 1M people, 70% of waste is not collected. The result: disease, floods, and a sense of helplessness. Citizens see illegal dumps growing but don’t know who to call. The city council lacks real-time data to act effectively.

The inspiration came from a simple fact: everyone has a phone with a camera and GPS, but no one uses them to clean the city. We wanted to turn every citizen into a watchdog and give the city council the eyes of the whole city.

What it does

Bukavu Propre is a mobile app that connects citizens and the city council to manage waste in real time.

  1. A citizen reports an illegal dump in 20 seconds with a photo + GPS, even offline.
  2. The city council sees all reports on a live map and assigns cleanup teams in 1 click.
  3. The citizen gets a notification when the issue is resolved, creating a virtuous cycle of trust and civic action. ## How we built it We chose a 100% serverless architecture on Google Cloud to be robust and zero-cost at launch, which is critical for Africa.
  • Mobile Frontend: Flutter for a single Android/iOS codebase that works offline on low-end phones.
  • Backend: Firebase + Cloud Firestore for real-time sync and offline-first mode. When network returns, photos auto-upload.
  • Hosting: Cloud Run for heavy tasks and statistics computation.
  • AI: Vertex AI with Gemini 1.5 Flash to analyze photos and auto-tag waste types (plastic, organic) to help with recycling.
  • Mapping: Google Maps Platform for precise geolocation of reports.
  • Admin Dashboard: React + Next.js hosted on Firebase Hosting. ## Challenges we ran into The biggest challenge was internet connectivity. In Bukavu, 4G is unstable and expensive. We had to optimize everything for offline-first with Firestore, compress images before upload, and keep the app under 15MB to run on old phones.

Second challenge: trust. How do you convince a citizen their report will actually be handled? That’s why we built the notification system and a public dashboard showing the resolution rate. Transparency is the key feature.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of building a full end-to-end solution, from citizen to city council, in under 72h for this hackathon.

Our biggest technical win is the 100% offline mode: a user can report 10 dumps in an area with no network, and everything syncs once they’re back online.

We’re also proud of using Gemini AI not as a gimmick, but for direct social impact: automatic analysis of waste photos to optimize the city’s recycling routes.

What we learned

We learned that technology is nothing without user trust. A "Problem solved, thank you!" notification is worth more than 10 features.

Technically, we mastered Google Cloud’s serverless architecture and the power of Gemini 1.5 Flash for low-cost image analysis. We also learned how critical UX/UI is for non-technical users. The app must be simpler than WhatsApp.

What's next for Bukavu Propre

Our 3-step plan after the hackathon:

  1. 3-Month Pilot: Launch a test in Ibanda district with the city council and 2 local NGOs. Goal: 500 active users and 30% reduction of illegal dumps in the test area.
  2. Impact Monetization: Integrate a "cleanliness points" system for citizens. Points sponsored by local businesses can be redeemed for mobile data or discounts.
  3. Scale-up: Integrate weather data and scheduling to predict where the next dumps will appear and move to prevention. The final goal is to open-source the model for every African city facing the same problem.

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