Check out this innovative idea.
My personal thoughts believe it's more impractical than practical, but I love that minds are being used to solve basic problems.
Here are my concerns on the Aquaduct (for those that care).
1. The majority of people in 3rd world countries live on hills, in crowded cities and/or down narrow foot paths. Leaving those who really need the bike unusable. Also I can't honestly see any African using it.
2. What are the costs and accessibility for repairs?
3. It seems heavy and difficult to ride. It supposedly carries 20 gallons of water which would be 166 pounds (this I figured from the video, they mentioned the average family of 4 needs 20gals of water per day and later mentioned that the Aquaduct could provide all a family needs in one trip).
4. It is the slums that have major sanitation problems, the source of the water is key. Wells provide cleaner water to start from than gutters or polluted rivers, obviously. So we need to educate and provide alternative water sources and cheaper ones. I am amazed how much it cost to dig a hole in the ground.
5. After watching the video a few times I have to be bold enough to ask if they have ever been to a 3rd world country. I am not accusing them for action rather the importance of seeing things with our own eyes first.
6. We love to develop large organizations that can make a significant difference but they end up being controlled by donors desires instead of the practical needs.
We see it and have seen over and over here in Africa.
7. God has already provided a solution for clean water, the sun. If you place a clear bottle of water in direct sun light for 6 hours it kills every bacteria harmful to man. There is a huge profit to be made on "bottle water" when simple education could be cheaper and instantly usable. Think of the cost to produce bottle water; plastic, molding plastic, fuel cost for delivering the bottled water, personnel, etc.
Those are my immediate thoughts. What tends to be more of a concern (in my thinking) is infrastructure issues. History proves that the problem lies NOT in available resources rather the many hands it must go through to reach the ones in need. Everyone gets a cut of the pie and the starved are left with crumbs.
The reason I hit this so hard is because I would love to see a practical solution to a practical need. If you have one or would like to start one, let's talk. The challenge is put forth.
Maybe the best option is to actually build an aqua duct that brings in clean water to villages and slums.
OK I am going on and liable to be disliked even more.
Blessings
Heath
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The Aquaduct was part of a "cleverness" challenge I think at MIT. THere are a couple of other videos out there that are like that on youtube that are indeed clever, but not entirely practical. It might work in Portland or Eugene which has a very good bike pathway system but you can already drink the water from the tap in those places.
I think the number one problem in Africa that contributes to poverty is a lack of a infrastructure which includes a legal system to enforce justice. Foreign investors won't put up factories if they are afraid that there just going to get burned down and the governments aren't going to do anything about it. It certainely isn't a resource problem or a manpower problem -- Africa has all of that and more.
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