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A Rolling Water Wheel...

This week’s post looks at a key invention that allows water to be rolled along the ground in a container rather than carried on the head. This reduces the number of trips to a water source as well as alleviating the strain on the body.

Wello designed their WaterWheel with women in mind. Women spend a significant amount of time collecting water each day which could be used for more productive means. They also noted that headloading can lead to chronic pain which in turn leads to serious complications during childbirth. Their WaterWheel has halved collection times and improved access to water (50%). Women and children have more time for work and education and consequently, a 20-100% increase in income was observed (wello, 2020). 

A video demonstrating the benefits of the WaterWheel

The wheel underwent a two-year trial process across India in order to ensure that it met the needs of communities. It has a 45L capacity meaning it is much more efficient than headloading, as twice as much water can be carried in half the time. It is durable and easy to handle as the balanced size and shape can navigate difficult terrain and a wide mouth permits easy pouring and cleaning.  (wello, 2020).



Although designed with women in mind, the product has been popular with men as well as it is viewed as a ‘tool’. Consequently, men have begun to take on the primary role or have split roles, freeing women further to do other things and challenging traditional gender norms (Tran, 2013). 

Arguably, containers like the WaterWheel are only suitable for certain types of relief as they would be hindered on very steep or rocky terrain. Perhaps it would be necessary to install a braking system which would prevent the container from rolling too fast when going downhill. Additionally, they do not address the issue of water quality and so an internal water purification system might be worth looking at. However, too many complex modifications would increase the price of these containers and thus, decrease their accessibility. Furthermore, it might not always be possible for the container to brought close to the water source e.g. only to the edge of an embankment, thus a smaller container would be needed to take to the source and bring back to the larger container in numerous trips. To an extent, this defeats the object of the roller as water is still carried manually (over a smaller distance) and less time is saved.

Nevertheless, these containers have proved to be successful as they have made water collection for women much more efficient. Moreover, the containers are often multi-purpose so can increase agricultural productivity, both by freeing up more time for women to attend to their farms but also through modifications for example, those that facilitate crop irrigation.  





Comments

  1. Kerry11 November 2020 at 09:47

    Great topic to cover as part of your blog. Could you say a bit more about how it ties in with your broader theme and its significance for women in light of this?

    (GEOG0036 PGTA)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Helena Holmes20 November 2020 at 08:29

    I chose to write about these rolling water wheels as it is women and girls who carry out a large proportion of water collection across the world. Thus, whilst these devices benefit both genders, they have disproportionately improved lives for women.

    Below is a link to a blog post by hippo roller where they explain that their idea stemmed from the struggles women face when carrying water.

    https://hipporoller.org/2018/05/women-carrying-water-where-it-all-started-for-hippo-roller/

    ReplyDelete

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