Cut a hole out of the centers of two opaque, flexible, plastic sheets. Insert filling valves at what will become the top, and at two of the bottom corners. Heat weld the two sheets together, see link for diagram.

The Water Tunic is worn over the head, filled with water. The heat welded baffles provide flexibility to a filled tunic, and prevent the water from all sinking to the bottom. The weight of the water is carried by the shoulders and kept close in to the wearer’s torso, leaving the hands free while providing for ease in balance and stride.

In its final design the Water Tunic should be able to hold 18 to 30 liters of water. It will be very inexpensive (a few dollars) to produce and transport, owing to its simple construction. The water tunic will cut in half the number of trips needed to transport water by basic manual labor, and can also supplement any other method of carrying water, or be easily used by itself.

Sorry about the long post...

Water hauling by rural women and children (typically 2 to 3 hours each day) currently consumes 600 calories or more, using up 1/3 of the daily nutritional intake. In Africa the average per capita water usage is about 46 liters per day. The traditional method of carrying water in a bucket on the head seems to be limited at around 30 liters per head, and is a very uncomfortable task.

Charity Organizations and/or the UN may distribute the Water Tunic to the people who need them, alongside their current aid and disaster relief programs. The Water Tunic may also be sold on the open market.

*The Water Tunic is intended as a stop-gap solution, and may not be the preferred solution in lieu of digging wells or providing plumbing or pipelines.

**Hippo Rollers are more expensive to produce ($60) and transport ($?) to the end user, and are too bulky to be rapidly deployed in an emergency. They look like a barrel acting as its own axil with a lawnmower-like push handle. Rollers and the Water Tunic may be used together.

***The Water Tunic is not a “Camelback” type product, as those carry small amounts of water for personal consumption while en-route, and tend to cost more than 40 USD, owing to their method of construction.
-- Laughs Last, Nov 02 2003

(?) Water Tunic Illustrated http://www.geocitie...ry/water-tunic.html
[Laughs Last, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Water Wear http://www.halfbake...m/idea/Water_20Wear
Not really the same thing at all. [phoenix, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Solar water decontamination http://www.american...lastics_june01.html
[bungston, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Could you put a goldfish in it? (Sorry, been reading the archives, and that one just killed me!)
-- stringstretcher, Nov 03 2003


I dig it. A decent, legitimate idea. The tunic should be half black and half transparent. This way the entire tunic could be hung in the sun for decontamination (see link).
-- bungston, Nov 03 2003



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