Monday, February 25, 2008

Child Labor Can Be Fun!

No, stupid! Use the children! They like going in circles!

A company called PlayPump® has figured out a clever way to get water to people who do not have access to clean water. And as much as I want to point out that children playing on a water pump is still in essence child labor, this does seem like a good idea. Children play on a merry-go-round thing that seems like fun but is actually pumping water for the community to use. It has huge implications and I really do agree that it is a good idea that could better the lives of billions of people. 

(GNU free documentation licensed photo from Jerzy Strelecki) (via grow-a-brain)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

BILLIONS of people? Now lets see. By "billions" I will assume that you mean at least 2 billion. That's one third of the human population. Lets further assume that each PlayPump pump provides water for 100 people and takes 5 grade schoolers to man. That would mean that in order for your liquid utopia to be realized, we are gonna need roughly 20 million pumps and about 100 million nauseous, merry-go-round-luvin tikes.....Yup. THAT'LL happen.

Charlie said...

i meant that more than 1 billion people are in need of clean water, and that the children who are playing on them today will soon have children of their own who will also need water. This doesn't seem like a technology that will be obsolete any time soon, and the number of people who are in need of water will only multiply over time. A technology that is relatively cheap to build and that works on the power of children will always have a market and I predict there will indeed be 100 million nauseous tikes, though maybe not all at once

Anonymous said...

I guess you are right. It IS a technology that will not be obsolete anytime soon. Water making merry-go-rounds will be around forever. Not unlike vacuum tubes and Pong.