Luke Vorstermans was our guest speaker at the February 3 Rotary meeting in Picton and he participated from South Africa via Zoom. He told us all about the "ECOroller". The ECOroller (formerly known as the Hippo Roller) is a specialized tool designed to alleviate the physical burden of water collection in water-stressed areas such as South Africa. The Rolling Water Foundation is the organization behind this innovation.
The ECOroller began as the hippo roller, which cost about $125 US but it needed a redesign. Luke explained the project's evolution from the 1000 Survival Garden Kits initiative, which bundled Hippo Rollers with gardening tools, to the development of the more affordable and scalable Eco Roller in collaboration with Ecotanks. They were able to strike a deal with Eco roller and make the hippo roller for only $75 US. Because it falls on the women to do this work and it might take anywhere from one to four hours a day, 45% of villages don’t have water. The ECOroller changes a woman’s life by allowing her to bring four times the amount of water that she could by traditionally carrying a bucket on her head. It is a very simple design, but it makes a huge impact. The Rolling Water Foundation is getting Canadian and US Rotary Clubs involved with the funding so that they can make a huge impact at the local level in South Africa. With the use of the ECOroller, villages have more access to water for hygiene, etc.
ECOroller 70-Litre Device: This device allows users to roll a durable plastic barrel along the ground using a sturdy steel handle. It carries nearly four times more water than a standard bucket, significantly reducing the number of trips and preventing long-term physical injuries to the spine and neck. For additional details, go to https://rollingwaterfoundation.org/about-us/