"This is the sort of invention that could make a huge difference, this could prove to be a life saver – Well Done!"
Portfolio: The ROSS range
What is ROSS?
The ROSS is a range of water transport, sanitation and storage devices designed by Red Button Design Ltd for use by communities across the developing world.
Who is it for?
The device is suitable for both relief in the case of a contaminated or disrupted water supply and, for millions of people without a local source of safe water, as an everyday appliance until a sustainable water infrastructure can be established.
How many people could benefit?
There are 1.2 billion people across the globe without access to safe drinking water and this results in some 10,000 unnecessary deaths every day. We estimate that over half of this population live in areas that could benefit from a product from the ROSS range.
How do you use it?
The user would push or pull the device to the nearest source of surface water and fill the 50 litre tank. They would then roll the unit back to the community. The rotation of the wheels drives a filtration system so that once the user has returned to the community the water dispensed is safe to drink.
What about ground wells?
Currently the average individual living in Sub-Saharan Africa has to walk 6km to find safe drinking water from a pump and can only carry around 10-15 litres back per trip. Because the ROSS can sanitise the collected water, a family could use their nearest water source, lake or waterhole which is on average just 1.2 km away. As the collected water is pushed, not carried, the user could now collect the full WHO recommended allowance of 50 litres of water in a single trip. Introducing ROSS into a community would therefore allow the user to a undergo a single 1.2 km journey to collect the necessary volume of water currently obtained from three 6 km journeys.
