WaterWheel
Water
When Cynthia Koenig, a young social entrepreneur from New York, learned that
millions of girls and women around the world spend hours each day collecting
water from distant sources, she decided to create a new way to help people in
poor communities transport water and it's called the WaterWheel. Koenig's
WaterWheel allows people to roll water in a 50-liter container versus carrying
it in 5 gallon (19 liter) jugs. Koenig estimates that the WaterWheel can save
women 35 hours per week in water transport time, as well as prevent the physical
strain that comes from balancing 40 pounds of water on top of their heads for
hours each day.
Every day around the world, over 200 million hours are spent each day fetching
water, often from water sources miles from home, and this task usually falls to
women and girls. By freeing up valuable time, the WaterWheel allows women to
spend time on income-generating activities that can help pull her family out of
poverty. The time savings also means that there is a greater likelihood that
girls will be allowed to stay in school, further reducing the rate of
intergenerational poverty.
After receiving a $100,000 Grand Challenges Canada prize to develop the
WaterWheel, Koenig founded a social enterprise company, Wello.
The company is in an early stage of development and has been piloting the
WaterWheel in rural communities in India. Koenig also plans on continuing to
make the WaterWheel itself more useful by adding in filtration, drip irrigation
kits, even a cell phone charger that uses the rotation of the wheel to charge
the battery of the cell phone and give people more access to essentials like
communication and education.
To learn more about this invention and its potential to transform the lives of
many girls and women around the world, check out Koenig's TED talk athttp://bit.ly/1gBdpGt and
you can read a recent article in The Guardian about her venture at http://bit.ly/1dMt7Mh.
To learn more about how to support her work, visit Wello's website athttp://wellowater.org/
For a wonderful book about more female innovators and inventors throughout
history, check out “Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions
by Women” for readers 8 to 13 at http://
Or, for younger readers age 4 to 9, we highly recommend the newly released
fiction book "Rosie Revere, Engineer" about an budding young engineer at http://
To help children and teens better understand the challenges many children around
the world face in order to go to school, check out our blog post, "Honoring
Malala: Mighty Girl Books on Children's Fight for Education," showcasing our top
books for young readers on children's educational access issues at http://
A Mighty Girl also has a section highlighting stories that feature poverty and
hardship as a significant theme. Such stories provide opportunities for parents
to discuss these topics with their children while also helping to foster
children's empathy for people living in difficult circumstances. Learn more at http://
And, if you're looking for ways to encourage your children to become the next
engineering and technology innovators, visit A Mighty Girl's STEM toy section
at http://