As part of the first ever Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered contest, engineers at Ideo created a sort of water cooler on wheels called the Aquaduct. Accoring to the site, Aquaduct "is a pedal-powered concept vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water." They won the grand prize and hope to come up with a working model that people can use all over the world.
This is a great example of a simple design that can make a lot of people's lives easier. The site says that more than one billion people worldwide lack access to safe water and the UN estimates that in the developing world, women and children walk an average of four miles a day to collect water. Instead of walking, why not bike? And filter it while you're at it!
This reminds me of an article article from Popular Mechanics explains the new field of "appropriate technology," where engineers use "practical, usually small-scale designs to solve problems in the developing world." MIT professor Amy Smith is coming up with innovative solutions to bring charcoal to Peru, where people suffer respiratory infections as a result of burning waste for fuel.
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