Q Drum: Water Transportation Made Easier
The Q Drum eases the task of fetching water for peoples in developing nations. Climate change has required a countless number of people all around the world to travel greater distances to retrieve water for everyday use. The Q Drum allows a child to pull the full capacity of 50 liters of water over flat terrain with comparative ease.
Typical methods of water transport include a sundry of containers that must be carried, carted, driven, or hauled by animal or bicycle to and from the water source. This can often mean unhygienic conditions with inappropriate containers and exposure to pathogens, requires high energy output, and is labor intensive and time consuming.
The Q Drum was designed to be simple, cost effective, keep the weight on the ground, be durable, and to have no moving parts or handles that could break. Using rural villages throughout South Africa and Angola as their model and testing grounds Q Drum Ltd has created a coping method for the effects of desertification and water shortage so prevalent throughout Africa.
The effort required to move the Q Drum allows children to be active helpers in a very important domestic duty, which could free adults from this job, which is typically the responsibility of women.
The drums are stackable, up to 40 high when filled, meaning storage space can be maximized and large scale transport possible.
As climate change continues to affect weather patterns, vegetation, food supplies, and water supplies humans will be forced to adapt. Until we can fix some of the damage we’ve inflicted on the planet innovations like the Q Drum will be essential.
Any Suggestions?
47 Comments, Comment or Ping
abcdefg
Talk about reinventing the wheel. This is a great idea.
Sep 30th, 2008
Anon
OK, this is stupid scam. The thing will fall apart within a year of being deployed - look at the seams, and imagine variable terrain. Aside from that it’s incredibly inefficient to pull - looping a rope thru the middle? - yeesh.
Sep 30th, 2008
Uncle B
Please teach these poor folk how to weld plastic so they can patch and repair the drums as well as to haul water easily, they are a great idea! I weld plastic food drums for my garden using a piece of plastic from a similar drum and heat. These same drums, when beyond repair for their intended use, may serve, once modified and welded into new forms, for many purposes. The welding technique is easy to learn and simple to practice. Here’s hope and prayers for developing nations, May they succeed beyond their wildest expectations!
Sep 30th, 2008
Jim Jones
Wow, I think you really hit the nail on the head! Good post!
Jiff
http://www.anonweb.eu.tc
Sep 30th, 2008
Doug
@ANON
from the manufacturers website:
“It’s durability has been proven by Kaymac Rotomoulders via a 3 metre drop-test filled with water as well as extensive actual use in rural areas of South Africa and Angola.With the Q-drum, even a child can pull 50 litres of water over flat terrain for several kilometres without undue strain, and could shift the burden of water collection away from adult women to children and reduce the existing burden on the children at the same time”
Sep 30th, 2008
Dave Bardra
This is a pretty great invention, but I have a bone to pick with the write-up. As much as climate change is an important issue, much of the problem with access to potable water is caused by overpopulation and the depletion of existing wells near village sites as well as poor sanitation.
I think it is a shame that climate-change deniers can latch on to the fact that we sometimes “over-hype” the effects of climate change sinec it is a serious problem, but clearly this is a case of that. Simply ascribing this problem to climate change will not help get the development money to where it is needed.
In the future climate change will certainly exacerbate this problem, but as it stands this is largely a sanitation and over-population problem.
Other than that(!) it’s a great invention and a good article!
Sep 30th, 2008
Tanner
I have a hard time swallowing criticism of this invention. Maybe there is a kink or two, but its certainly a step up from the current system. A move in the right direction, to say the least. I do agree that a lesson in plastic welding would be beneficial, but that’s a moot point.
Sep 30th, 2008
John Lancia
Of course, the tendency for plastics to leach bisphenyl-a into the water it is holding when exposed to a heat source (sunlight) has been taken into consideration? Bishphenyl-A has been linked to a large number of conditions like diabetes and heart disease in test subjects. Any word on this?
Sep 30th, 2008
dan
A good invention I agree but only a small distance from the Hippo Roller which was around already. Seems like some credit is due.
http://www.hipporoller.org/
Sep 30th, 2008
Impatient
Anon is stupid. Any fool that has been in a similar situation would punch you in the face.
The biggest issue is cost. Too costly, it is useless. Is it public domain or patented design?
Not that worried about chemicals leeching out…not any more worried than I was before…do you know what folks have been using?
Repair is good point, too.
Somebody nominate this for google’s 10/100 contest.
Sep 30th, 2008
misanthropy today
if only you could get this kid to walk through a few baseball diamonds then you’d really be hitting two birds with one stone.
Sep 30th, 2008
umm
What if you lose the lid?
Sep 30th, 2008
gwern
John Lancia: That argument is pretty silly. Those chemicals pose a small risk, if they actually do, while these people are drinking water which is massively polluted compared to any leaching, and their lives are being shortened by lack of water - I wouldn’t be surprised that if one ran the numbers and examined how much life is being reduced by lack of sanitation and hygiene (due to not having easy access to water), one would come up with numbers orders of magnitudes greater than the loss from leaching.
Until the hanging fruit like clean water supplies, maternal mortality, malaria, hygiene, ….etc etc etc are used up, opposing technologies like this because of a tiny bad side-effect is positively immoral.
Sep 30th, 2008
Marie A.
Why dont they just drink bottled water instead?
Sep 30th, 2008
Chris
Would be cool if by rolling, the water was forced through a filter.
By the time you got home… clean water!
Nicely done Q Drum makers!
Reminds me of the merry-go-round that pumped ground water.
Sep 30th, 2008
Georjina
Isn’t it interesting the ‘We’re better, we’re smarter’ that popped up on this post. What is it you people aren’t seeing that the rest of us do?! These people are traveling miles to get clean drinking water! Do you see a Starbucks Miss ‘Why don’t they drink bottled water?’ blond!
Some of you are ‘meat’ just waiting to be eaten….if you don’t know what that term means, maybe you should listen closer to the Rap songs you think are ‘Hot!’.
Sep 30th, 2008
Ritchell
Georjina,
I’m almost 100% positive that the bottled water comment was a joke. Sub-Saharan Africans know that bottled water is out of vogue.
Sep 30th, 2008
Robert Frost
Photoshopped.
Sep 30th, 2008
Jared
Some sort of sphere-based setup would be infinitely better for navigating the kind of terrain they’re dealing with.
Sep 30th, 2008
Ross
@jared: so would a hovercraft, i think the idea is simplicity and lack of breakable parts.
Sep 30th, 2008
Susan
I saw these at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in NY for the exhibit “the other 90%” it was really cool. There are several other ideas that were exhibited to help those in poverty stricken areas and almost all of them were amazingly simply but effective. The sort of ideas that leave you think “of course…. ” Go to http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/ to see more cool ideas.
Sep 30th, 2008
Maciek Alexander Budzinski
whats 50 liters of water used for?
Sep 30th, 2008
Jocelyn
I stumbled upon this page…
Great idea!
Sep 30th, 2008
Jeethu Rao
A similar concept: http://www.hipporoller.org/
Sep 30th, 2008
John Lancia
A silly argument? Possibly. But all pointing that out does is highlight what a band-aid solution this is in the first place. Whats the point of hauling dirty water so far then? Its just going to kill them anyway if we follow your logic. And why introduce yet another harmful substance into their diets and the diets of infants who will eventually suffer from being exposed at such a young and prolonged stage?
How about instead of making a really neat water bottle that people in the first world can feel good about, we work on things like providing them with potable drinking water in the first place. Something like the Segway scooter guy is working on. And after that, work on providing them with some workable infrastructure for getting the water closer to them. All long term solutions of course, but those are the kind that make a difference. Jesus, if you want to make things easier for them in the short run, how about a water barrel bolted to the frame of a wheel barrow? That should make hauling a couple hundred liters dirty, disease filled water for kilometers much easier. I just thought that up and I don’t even have a design degree or CAD program on my computer. And It will be relatively cheap and easy to implement because all the parts are already mass produced.
Sep 30th, 2008
anon
These have been available for several years now only earlier designs were a smaller capacity and narrower.
Sep 30th, 2008
Anon
Ok, this seems like a pretty good idea. But I don’t like the selling point of “let’s put the burden onto the kids!” Shouldn’t we be putting the kids into the schools? I like the PlayPump better, where it can be implemented. Villages still get water (and electricity!), and kids get to play and can go to school if there are teachers, rather than spending the day hauling (albeit easier to haul) barrels of water.
Sep 30th, 2008
777
lol, nice.
Sep 30th, 2008
Othello
@John Lancia: I really don’t get your criticism. What kind of container do you think they normally use? It is all plastic. Could they make the drum from stainless steel? Maybe but good luck lifting it. Glass? No. Carbon fibre it is then!
Besides, not every plastic leeches that kind of substance.
Sep 30th, 2008
John Lancia
You don’t get it because you don’t understand the tack that I’m taking. Plastic or not, this Q-drum or idrum or whatever its called is just a fancy band-aid solution for a much larger problem than having to walk a long way for water. (and you can bet that this thing will have those chemicals because they are used to harden plastics, but thats besides the point.) Foul water needs to be treated, thats the problem. Not having a really neat and impractical way to transport that foul water. Plus you could have a much more practical and affordable way to transport even more water if you read my above posting. A wheelbarrow with a water drum attached. You can even see a the villagers using a wheel barrow in one of the above pictures.
Besides, who the hell thinks that this drum thingy will last more than a few days bouncing over anything besides the soft sand pictured above. Jagged sharp rocks will wear the thing down in no time at all. Stainless steel would be a better material. They have stainless steel drums filled with water and with handles attached just for flattening the bumps on people front lawns. Why couldn’t this be retrofitted for the purpose of transporting water?
So anyway, A for effort. But an F for practicality. Forget the specially made gadgets that first world citizens love to ogle over and figure out something made from readily available mass produced parts that can be easily shipped and assembled anywhere in the world. Like a two wheeled barrow frame and a drum attached to it that can carry ten times as much water and wont where out every week or so.
Sep 30th, 2008
ANON
These will be bought by villagers, or for villages by a charity paying to for a manufacturing run? The latter I guess - a manufacturer’s run of 10,000 made more locally of course - would get dumped on villages in a couple of months and 90% split or fall into non-use some 12 months later.
Regular wheelbarrows, and a wheelbarrow fitting design would be better.
Asking http://practicalaction.org/ would be best.
Oct 1st, 2008
misanthropy today
i still think the most relevant question here is whether these kids will be dragging those rollers over a baseball diamond to smooth it out.
Conservation of energy.
Scenario #2 is that they put another one of those things in the back and connect it with wood and a canopy. i’ve included a photo of some other villagers who’ve used such a design to great effect:
http://littlemisscarrera.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/flintstones.jpg
Oct 1st, 2008
action instead of talk
My word people.
You all seem to be of the intellectual type (except water bottle girl).
Point is, this issue as with all others will always pose multifaceted problems resulting in combi-solutions. Really depends on which non proven cynical theory you wish to pursue i.e pop pressure, infrastructure etc.
I am glad an idea of any sort has come to fruition, as with all be it hippo roller or padlocked barrel to well. Anything, listen carefully, ANYTHING that makes life easier for people in these nations is a plus. I for one refuse to sit here and forever criticize yet come up with no solution.
criticize government, global politics, wasteful attitudes of the rich, capitalism, distribution of power and wealth etc…..but please unless you can be bothered to implement better then viva la Q drum.
Oct 1st, 2008
Vidar Hokstad
Georjina and anyone else that missed the joke and history reference: The bottled water comment was a very obvious reference to the famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette (hence the Marie A) “Let them have cake”, which was supposedly uttered in reply to an explanation that the public was rioting because there was no bread.
Oct 1st, 2008
Vidar Hokstad
John Lancia, you miss the point completely: They could use wheelbarrows TODAY. So why are so many of them carrying large plastic containers? Because wheelbarrows are expensive, and they come in addition to the plastic containers (so one more thing to spend money on) and unless they have really big, wide wheels they are damn impractical on soft surfaces. Also, have you tried pushing a heavily loaded wheelbarrow? Having you tried dragging one?
And this competed with existing plastic containers, so the chemical issue is moot - as long as it’s no worse than what they do today, if it meets other goals such as making transport easier it is still a net win.
It’s all well and good to say that this is not a final solution, but that does not mean it won’t help people.
The company claims the drum has already been extensively tested in real use - assuming they are not lying, they’ve already proven it’s practicality.
As for solving the problem of fouled water - anything that allows easier transportation increases the _range_ water can be transported. While that doesn’t solve the problem, it makes it more manageable: A smaller number of clean sources can provide safe water for more people. Again not a solution, but an improvement that makes the very limited resources of charities and governments working to improve things stretch further.
Oct 1st, 2008
peejay
There’s a stunning lack of understanding being shown on this page by some people. The wheelbarrow comment beggars belief - no really, it does. This simple idea addresses both practical and cultural issues. The practical issue being that water needs to be transported long distances in these areas. The argument about carrying filthy water may or may not be a red herring - it’s certainly still a concern. In many cases the need to carry water long distances is as a result of the clean supply being located somewhere away from the population. Stagnant or dirty water may be only a few yards away but no use to the people. The less effort involved, the more water can be carried. Making a rolling container where a person is not being expected to bear the exceptional weight of large quantities of liquid is an ideal solution. The wheelbarrow comment is ludicrous because it requires someone to be able to lift a considerable proportion of this weight - thus a child cannot undertake the task. This is where the cultural issue is addressed. Like it or not, agree with it or not, children are a big part of the equation and are expected to assist in these activities as part of the family unit. A solution like this allows that. While investment in these is a great idea, investment in getting them used in conjunction with the installation of more clean water supplies is a better one.
…and don’t get me started on the “whats 50 liters of water used for?” comment
Oct 1st, 2008
Robert T
@John Lancia - what a dope you are (you’re not an engineer or lawyer by any chance?) - yes we need to solve the problem of water proximity and yes we need to not have wars in Africa and yes we need to stop AIDS but guess what these are huge problems that will take years & years - you can’t jump straight to the end solution. We didn’t go from medievil to enlightened democracy in 20 minutes in the Northern Hemisphere either - but by one tiny step at a time. Right now, these things look as if, like for like they will make this specific task a lot easier - so job done. Tick one item off the list of 1 million things that we need to do to sort the world out, and move on to the next. Thats how stuff gets done!
@JARED - have you tried to stack a sphere?
@some other people - erm why can a lot of commenters not spot a lot of obvious jokes? you guys are dopes too! (btw my favourites are photoshopped & bottled water!)
Oct 1st, 2008
FRED
@Vidar.
For the same volume of water, provided the container in it is full and sealed with a cap (not sloshing), and provided a ground that is firm, will be easier to move than that QDrum. It will be _much_ easier if the ground is anything other than perfectly flat. It will be easier too for a perfectly flat surface with half an inch of sand/dust. Like the QDrum the child or adult can stop at will to catch their breath. Even on a incline, unlike the QDrum. Broken ground, or rocky ground, or undulating ground, the wheelbarrow is going to be much more practical. Through a dry stream bed its going to be much easier (provided the sides have been smoothed out by human traffic, or there is a plank of modest with over it. The QDrum (unless it has some way of preventing water moving circularly inside it) will also be a bit random as it’s pulled.
Then a role slung thru the center. Wow. Add friction why don’t ya. If the things are in use after 8 months, then a number of them are going have a wooden pole through the center and carried on the shoulder of two adults (for variable terrain situations, or distances over a mile).
The QDrum is not as practical as its manufacturer suggests.
Oct 1st, 2008
Brianne
This is the best thing I’ve seen in a long while. Thanks for sharing.
Oct 3rd, 2008
Peter
Having worked in Africa, I have seen first hand how much time and efforts women and children spend on hauling water.
According to a study in Africa, a child spent just under 16 hours a week hauling water from the nearest water source to their homes.
The study shows the impact of fetching water on children’s school attendance, sense of well-being and general health. All three factors related to how much time the kids spent on the chore. This in turn was dependent on the distance of the water source and how many trips they made daily to get water.
The only thing the article, neither the Q-drum website states, is how much a drum costs.
Oct 7th, 2008
cc
check out http://www.hipporoller.org
these guys were the first to develop the concept of rolling water. and
unlike the Q Drum, hippos are actually being produced + distributed.
Dec 4th, 2008
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