Which is Your Favorite Development Innovation?
The Guardian newspaper in the UK has compiled a list of development innovations from the past 12 months and is asking members of the public to vote for their favorite one. Whether you take part or not, the list is a testament to the creative outpouring of inventive minds.
Among the innovations for the common good are an app that helps reunite families after a natural disaster and the WaterWheel that makes life easier for women in India.
Here’s a brief insight to some of the innovations that have made it into the newspaper’s top 12:
This invention eases the burden of girls and women who have to transport heavy jerry cans of water on their heads. The WaterWheel is 50-liter container that doubles as a wheel and is pushed along the ground.
App that helps to reunite families after a natural disaster
RapidFTR is an open source app that uses android phones and laptops, and enables humanitarian workers to register information about missing children. This is then uploaded to a database accessible by those responsible for child welfare. The aim is to reunite children quickly with their families after they’ve become separated during emergency situations.
The whiskey byproduct that’s purifying water poisoned by arsenic in Bangladesh
According to the World Health Organization, the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh is the largest mass poisoning in history. Dr Leigh Cassidy from Aberdeen University has modified draff (the residue of barley husks after the fermentation of grain used in brewing alcohol) to act as a cleansing agent. She calls her innovation, Dram.
The affordable glasses enabling Rwandans to see
Inspired by the book Out of Poverty, Martin Aufmuth spent three years developing a device that makes cheap glasses. Each pair costs only $1 to produce on a specially designed machine that requires no electrical power.
To read the full list and cast your vote, click here.
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