Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker, two South Africans, a few years ago developed a container-wheel that makes it easier for rural populations to transport water. The Hippo Water Roller, as they named it, is an improved water canister that makes it easier to transport the precious liquid, despite the weight of the amount of water it contains. In fact, by taking advantage of the industrial technique known as rotational molding, the two inventors have designed plastic tanks of cylindrical shape without welding or gluing points. This process, which ensures the uniformity of the entire exterior surface of these tanks, made it possible to add sleeves to them and thus transform them into wheels. Thus, the hippo water roller presents itself, explains Le Monde, as a kind of wheelbarrow whose water tanks are the wheels. And the result in terms of saving time and energy is quite spectacular: this revolutionary idea makes it possible to transport, in one go, up to 90L of water for a load mass of around 10kg.
For several years now, this innovation has improved the daily lives of people in rural areas who often have to transport water over long distances to bring them back from the supply points to their homes. Le Monde points out that water transport represents 200 million hours of work per day. A task traditionally assigned to women and girls in Africa.