The simplest way to catch, store and deliver clean drinking water is through with a RainCatchrer. Along with impact partner, Raincatcher.org, HUB has installed raincatchers in schools in Africa and also supports efforts to dig water wells.
Unregulated irrigation along the shores of Lake Victoria in Africa has drastically lowered the availability of clean water. Women and children become critically ill through lack of water or usage of dirty water.
The HippoRoller is a heavy-duty plastic drum that can be filled upright, then sealed and rolled like a steamroller across rough terrain. The 24-gallon (90L) tank weighs 200 pounds when full, but the rolling drum has a functional weight of just 22 pounds, so virtually anyone can use it. The current design has been tweaked to ease shipping and transportation of the carriers, which are manufactured in Johannesburg, South Africa. They are distributed mainly by local NGOs to communities throughout southern Africa, along with training on water purification and sanitation.
A single HippoRoller can hold a day’s water for an entire family of five. Great potential here to work with RainCatcher systems to help people transport water more easily and efficiently from a central location in a village out to individul homes. And what an improvement to go…
...from this...
...to this! (All photos: HippoRoller.org)
Another simple solution to the water problem: Rain ‘n Roll.
Irena Salina’s documentary film, FLOW (For the Love Of Water), humanizes international water politics.
Water is the sleeping giant issue of the 21st Century and we all need to wake up about it. FLOW opens our eyes about the greatest threat of our time – the global water crisis. It is a compelling and passionate film. Its engaging narrative will grip the viewer. — Robert Redford
Check out the trailer and a review of the film, below.
Irena Salina’s documentary looks at all things water and the effects a dwindling supply has on health, prosperity and security.
By Kenneth Turan, Times Movie Critic
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, the quietly apocalyptic “Flow” makes a good case that what’s going on with our planet’s water supply should make you very, very afraid. Any film that begins with a bleak W.H. Auden quote (“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water”) is not going to be a ray of sunshine in anyone’s life.
Made over a five-year period by director Irena Salina, who went all over the world and talked to an impressive list of experts, “Flow” (which also stands for “For Love of Water”) is a smartly done, involving look at a number of interrelated water issues.
For one thing, it seems that the planet is simply running out of water, which, given our dependence on it, is not a good thing. “We have wars going on over oil,” one of the film’s authorities says. “Water can be oil all over again.”
Also a problem is that as a society we are terminally polluting what water we have. “Flow” opens with a shot of India’s Ganges, kind of the poster image for polluted water, and it tells us that water-borne diseases kill more people annually than either AIDS or wars.
It turns out, however, that these kinds of problems are not limited to the developing world. Rocket fuel seems to have made its way into some American water systems, and herbicides such as Atrazine, banned in the European Union, are still in wide use over here.
More unexpected is “Flow’s” examination of the bitter, at times physical, conflicts that erupt when major corporations have tried to privatize water in parts of Bolivia, South Africa and other countries.
From the companies’ point of view, they are providing a service by bringing safe water to areas that don’t have it. But if the need to make a profit means that safe water will be priced above what the poorest people can afford to pay, those folks will continue to use the unsafe but free alternative. It is a dilemma we are likely to hear more about in years to come.
One of “Flow’s” most intriguing segments concerns bottled water, the alternative of choice for society’s most prosperous elements but a liquid that turns out to be less regulated and possibly less safe than what comes through the tap. In addition, we’re told, society could provide pure water for everyone on the planet for what we pay for the bottled kind. It’s something to think about, as is this entire film.
