Skip to main content

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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Enhancing Female Participation

A study by the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) concluded that the full participation of women in water and sanitation projects led them to be more sustainable and successful ( IRC, 1998 ).  The Becheve Women In 1999, the Nigerian Conservation Fund established a Watershed Management Project on the Obudu plateau. The local Becheve women were elected to be on the management committee, subsequently involving them in the creation and maintenance of a water reservoir. As a result, time collecting water was reduced, increasing the time available for both girls and women to attend school. A 45% reduction in cases of diarrhoea was observed and the Becheve women were also able to resolve a conflict between the Fulani tribesmen over access to water, granting them their fair share ( UN, 2006 ). Empowering and including women in decision-making is crucial as this enables the key issue of gender to be integrated into water policies and programmes.  Women in Politi...
4 comments
Read more

Introduction

Representations of Africa Wainaina’s essay addresses how Africa is habitually depicted in the popular media ( Wainaina, 2005 ). His use of satire is particularly effective as it emphasizes the incorrect and ignorant way in which ideas and information around Africa are represented. These portrayals often characterise Africa as uncivilised and corrupt, rife with starvation and as one country, even though it is the most genetically diverse continent in the world ( Spain, 2009 ).  Taken from  https://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/ His essay also gives rise to an important issue concerning performative allyship. ‘An ally is someone from a nonmarginalized group who uses their privilege to advocate for a marginalized group’. Whereas performative allyship is when someone acts like an ally in a way that ‘isn’t helpful or that actively harms the group’( Phillips, 2020 ).This often involves something called ‘virtue signalling’ whereby people express their outrage on an issue to ...
1 comment
Read more