Pedal and Purify

With an estimated 1.1 billion people lacking access to drinking water around the globe, this year's Innovate or Die competition, sponsored by Google and Specialized, faced this problem head on.

One of the innovative prototypes to come out of the event: The Aquaduct — a prototype bike that purifies water as the rider pedals it. It allows people to ride the bike to the community well, fill it up and purfiy the water as they return home. The final product of the contraption is 8 liters of filtered drinking water.

While the prototype has a long ways to go to earn my "Tech Meets Good" criteria (delivering solutions to the developing world via first-world technology), it's a start in the right direction. In the developing world, collecting water is a family's full-time job. Often, children (especially girls) do not attend school, as they must spend an entire day traveling to and from a water source to replenish the household supply.

Tainted water leads to a high rate of cholera and life-threatening diarrhea.The Aquaduct solves this problem by facilitating reasonably easy transportation and filtration all in one device. Developed by product-design company IDEO (located down the street from Tonic in Palo Alto), the Aquaduct may benefit the developing world even more by including such modifications as the ability to carry food and other goods, carry children and come replete with a permanent tire. However, this cool bike sets the example for innovative thinking to solve a major world problem.