The "Aquaduct" : pedal-powered water filtering vehicle
tags:
Stumble ThisThe Aquaduct is pedal powered vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. A peristaltic pump attached to the pedal crank draws water from a large tank, through a carbon filter, to a smaller clean tank. The clean tank is removable and closed for contamination-free home storage and use. A clutch engages and disengages the drive belt from the pedal crank, enabling the rider to filter the water while traveling or while stationary.
Amazing, I wonder what exactly the filter is that they are using.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4967452.stm
The people that this would most benefit probably work for less than a dollar a day. A bike like this is definitely not an option for them. It would be at least a couple hundred dollars. That's a year of saving every penny you earned. Probably not worth it. Not only that, but families in developing countries are generally larger than the average American family. A family of four needs at least 20 gallons of water a day. That tank of purified water looks like it holds about two gallons. That's 10 trips back and forth to your water source, just for clean water. 10 trips would consume most of your day.... and you'd require more water from all that exercise. You'd have to force your children into employment at an early age, since you spent the family's savings on a strange looking bike, and now you're so busy riding around on it that you can't work.
So yes, cool concept. But i'm really, really surprised that it won the "Innovate or Die" competition this year.
The children already work over there, everybody works, the children don't get to sit around and watch TV. Everyone has to take part in preserving the household and making sure everyone is alive.
Do you know anything about why third world countries exist, what their resource situations are like even for something as renewable as wood? Have you seen what their water looks like. Of course they're not going to be able to afford the bike. But their government could buy a bunch, I could afford to give a family one, you could afford to give a family one, some nice rich guy could by 100 for a village.
Do you think that the people who were smart enough to create a mechanism that both transports water, and cleans it - from parasites and disease - would be daft enough to think that a family who makes 43 cents a day is going to be able to afford this bike. NO!
Use your imagination.
I remember an interesting movement kinetics study from a few years ago, analyzing the efficiency of movement for different animals. Humans walking were remarkably inefficient compared to many animals, the most lopsided comparisons being against large birds, like condors. HOWEVER, human's on bikes were exceedingly efficient movers, demonstrating how ingenuity is the 'bread and butter' of our species.