Ingenious Hippo Water Roller is improving access to water in Africa

In some rural parts of Africa, people, especially women and children spend up to 26% of their time fetching water for drinking and cooking, washing and other needs. The images of women carrying water jars on their heads are a traditional postcard of Africa, but these people, in addition to wasting a lot of time on this daily struggle, often suffer from long-term injuries due to the heavy load carried inappropriately.

Two African engineers have developed an invention that is changing this reality, and has been improving millions of lives since it was first established in 1994. The ‘Hippo Water Roller‘ is a simple device for carrying water more easily and efficiently. It consists of a barrel-shaped container which holds the water and can roll along the ground, and a handle attached to the axis of the barrel. The tank holds up to 90 liters, far more than a person can carry on their head. Furthermore, in a more complex model it counts with a pump and a filter to purify the water for drinking purposes.

Considering these families that need the water roller can’t really afford them, they are delivered through sponsors. According to the Hippo Water Roller Project, “approximately 46,000 sponsored Hippo rollers have been distributed in at least 20 countries directly benefiting at least 300,000 beneficiaries with an average of 7 per household.”