Wednesday 10 April 2013

Increased Liquidity...

I've gotten a bit behind on some of my emails recently. Travelling and work and pretty much life in general has meant that I have been a bit bereft of my daily dose of clever clogs. But I've been catching up today and have found something quite inspirational.

Across the ocean, in the birthplace of Paddington Bear (darkest Peru for those of you who don't know the story) lies a collaboration that has produced some liquid magic - a billboard that wrings moisture from the air and produces filtered drinking water.

Lima's water billboard
Image source: www.springwise.com
The ideas was formed by partners UTEC and Mayo Publicity/DraftFCB who have blended engineering excellence and creative thinking to bring this life line to the people of Lima. Check out this video to see how clever they've really been...and what a difference they've really made.


It touched my heart to see the boy laughing at the sheer joy of tipping a bucket of cool, safe water over his head. Wonderful stuff.

In a world concerned about the increasing scarcity of life-giving resources like water, I couldn't help thinking how ingenious this was. It's worth pondering how it could be used all over the world.

And how much we take turning on the kitchen tap to fill a glass with fresh water for granted.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Now THAT's an inspirational way to start the day! I love when creativity and cleverness add up to innovative problem-solving. Thanks for sharing such an upbeat story :)

Unknown said...

My pleasure Linda!

Alien said...

. . archeologists in Peru wondered how ancient civilisations managed to their agriculture in an arid region. Then noticed that where trees grew they supported mini ecosystems. That led to research of old drawings and artifacts and the realisation that the ancients erected 'billboards' with masses of vertical strings and a gathering trough underneath. These precipitated the moisture out of the clouds (it was high up) and created a constant supply of fresh water for agriculture and drinking. Nothing new under the sun!

Unknown said...

Wow that is amazing. Goes to show we haven't advanced terribly much in all this time have we? Clever Peruvians....