Solutions and Enablers

The three articles I read looked at how people are developing technology to help deliver basic needs to those that are unable to get them. The first article I looked at displayed and discussed the different water purifying technologies that have been developed for people who do not have access to water. A common theme that I noticed for each technology was that they were rather simple and used resources that are readily available to people except for the clay pot purification system which requires a lining of silver to help purify water. The water purifying technologies that I found to be the most useful were the ones that not only focused on water purification but could be used for other things. The Life Sack for example can be used as a backpack to carry grains or other items when not purifying water or as an effective way to carry water that had been retrieved. The only issue I had for many of these technologies was whether or not they were cost effective or if they were readily available to people in low income countries for a low cost. This is an issue for the developer of the self-adjustable eye glasses (SAEG.

The creator of the SAEG created a pair of eye glasses that adjust automatically to a person’s eye prescription. The need for these glasses in low income countries is great as it is a way to cure myopia but they have not managed to reduce the price of these glasses so that they are affordable for people in these countries to get them. This is a great technology that many people need but yet will not be distributed for a while until they can lower the cost.

The last article that I read was in regards to the portable homes developed by Ikea. This innovation is great for the thousands of refugees that have been left homeless. The shelters are better than the tents that the UN gives out to refugees as they create more privacy for individuals, last longer, and have a built in solar panel for phone charging and a small light. Again the issue with this technology is that they are too expensive for people to buy them making the UN tents a more cost effective option.

I feel that many of these technologies will lower in cost and be able to perform at a higher level in the future once innovators are able to effectively use frugal engineering to create these technologies. Many of these technologies are simple in engineering but yet still have a high cost on them making them difficult to distribute to low income countries.