The Artdog Image(s) of Interest
This month the Images of Interest have been exploring better ways for people around the world to gain better access to clean, safe water–defined by the UN as a basic human right, but out of reach for millions, if not billions (different sources cite different numbers) of people all over the world.
Previous posts have discussed ways to make the water safe to drink, via LifeStraws and ceramic water purifiers —but before you can clean it you have to get it.
And bring it home.
Some people in “undeveloped” parts of the world may spend up to a quarter of their lives hauling water.
Enter the Hippo Water Roller. This reimagined child of a water barrel and a wheelbarrow holds about five times as much as the average bucket, and was designed by two South Africans who grew up in rural areas, Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker.
They’ve been making them since 1991. As of mid-2016, some 50,000 of them had been distributed to more than 20 countries, and countless lives have been improved.
I guess that’s just the way they roll.*
*Augh! Sorry! Couldn’t resist.
VIDEO: Many thanks to Hippo Roller’s Flickr Photostream for the still shot of Hippo Water Roller users in action, and to Insider on YouTube for the Hippo Water Roller video. And a tip of the hat to Warren Whitlock (@WarrenWhitlock) for alerting me to this ingenious solution to an age-old problem!