Carrying water is a time-consuming and tiring chore for millions of women and children in rural Africa.
Typically, a woman can manage no more than a 20-litre bucket carried on her head, often walking long distance to bring it home.
The Hippo water roller allows up to 90 litres of water to be carried in a single trip, and with much less effort.
Hippo Water Roller was created in 1991 by two South Africans, Mr. Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker. They both grew up on farms and had seen the effect of the water crisis on rural communities where access to water is a daily struggle for millions of people.
The Hippo Water Roller Project was established in 1994 and first piloted in South Africa. The broad social impact of the project has since been felt in more than 20 other countries.
Its design consists of a sturdy plastic barrel attached to steel handle. The barrel has an opening at one end for filling and cleaning.
Its design means that the weight of water is carried on the ground, while the material is strong enough to survive Africa’s dirt roads.
The barrels can be detached from the handles to store water and other things. In areas that have seen conflict, they can be pushed as a precaution against landmines.
It was specifically designed for use in tough rural conditions, with a long lifespan of 5 – 7 years, often much longer. Using the Hippo roller results in many social benefits, most of which are immediate.
Hippo roller’s main use is to enable people without water on tap to transport water from distant water sources back to their homes.
The Hippo roller is also used for drip irrigation for example in Zambia where small scale cotton farmers use the Hippo roller to water their crops.
A wireframe that has been designed to attach on to the roller, transforms the device into a movable casualty bed for the sick or wounded.
The same wireframe turns it into a transportable ‘spaza’ shop that includes a shade cover as well as a trolley that can be used to transport products to market.
The Hippo roller has been used in test cases as an anti-personnel demining device, whereby it is rolled along the ground to absorb the blast of landmines when filled with water.
Global and local impact
The aim of the Hippo Water Roller Project is to reduce the number of people without adequate access to water by 1% = 10 million people. So far rollers have been distributed to 21 African countries as well as India, Mexico and South America.
As of June 2012, approximately 42,000 Hippo rollers have been distributed in 21 countries directly benefiting in excess of 300,000 people. 95% of these rollers have been donated or sponsored by corporate businesses as part of their social responsibility programs.
for more details visit: http://www.hipporoller.org/
