Over a billion of our fellow world citizens do not have access to clean drinking water. Over three million people die annually as a result of waterborne diseases, making them the leading cause of death on our planet. Often when clean water is available, it is located miles away and takes hours and much effort to transport. An innovative new tricycle has been invented that could potentially help to solve some of these life-threatening problems.
The Aquaduct is a pedal-powered vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water. It is the winning design in the “Innovate or Die” contest, which asked people to create pedal-powered solutions to help combat climate change. The novel competition was sponsored by Specialized Bicycles, Google and Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
The Aquaduct tricycle was developed by a five person California based team, and bested over one hundred other pedal-powered inventions. The mobile filtration vehicle is equipped with a peristaltic pump attached to the pedal crank, which draws water from a large rear tank through a carbon filter to a smaller clean container tank mounted in the front of the bike. The clean water tank is removable and closed for contamination-free home storage and use. A clutch engages and disengages the drive belt from the pedal crank, which allows the rider to filter the water while riding or while the vehicle is stationary. The ingenious design solves the problems of filtration, transportation and storage simultaneously, and has the potential to transform the lives of millions of people.
“We believe in the power of the bicycle,” said Specialized’s founder and president Mike Sinyard, “we believe that the bicycle can be a self-powered solution for reversing global warming, improving the environment and making the world a better place for future generations.”
