Robert Nightingale is the designer of a project called Water Shelter: Sustainable Shelter Solutions for Sub Saharan Africa. The family-sized tent is designed to be dropped from an aircraft (serving as its own parachute), catch rainwater to be filtered and stored in a plastic bucket, and then to be packed and rolled in the bucket (used as a cartwheel) when it’s time to move on. I’m not sure how practical it is or if it could be affordable, but I liked that Nightingale has given it so much thought: more like an urban planner than an architect or product designer. I first discovered it on this design blog, but today I discovered there is also a slide show, and even a music video with fun animation.
Between my longtime interest in ultralight backpacking gear and my new work in microfinance and grassroots development, I guess it was inevitable that I’d be drawn to innovations such as this.
Meanwhile, the Darfur stove, developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Engineers Without Borders-USA and others, not only reduces deforestation, but by cutting down on the amount of wood that has to be collected, also reduces women’s risk of violence when they have to wander farther and farther away from camp in search of kindling.
I also discovered Swedish company Vestergaard Frandsen, working with the Carter Foundation, has developed a drinking straw-like water purifier that can be distributed in bulk for only about $3 each. LifeStraw, which will filter two liters a day for a year, can make potable almost any source of surface water. So far more than 20 million have been distributed in African countries such as Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mauritania.
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