Today is Blog Action Day 2010 - this year themed with water.
I think the main way ahead when it comes to clean and safe water production and distribution for health and drinking - and that is thinking new and differently, implementing innovations turned into sustainopreneurial ventures in one way or another.
Twestival and Water February 2009
When I arranged Norrköping Twestival, the first year Twestival was running globally, the overall theme was water, with charity recipent Charity:Water. I made a presentation that year, recycled here. I focused water innovations, and highlighted some case stories.
I talked about Ultra Violet Water Purifiers of various kinds. I mentioned Sodis - cleaning the water with PET bottles in the sun. I shared the story of PlayPumps - kids having fun at the same time pumping up water. I showed the Life Straw - a special straw drinking water through, with filter, even from the dirtiest rivers in the developing countries.
What they all have in common is the "small scale". It's not about big pipes and systems with long distance water distribution in centralized systems, it's about having the solution close and near the smaller contexts; individual, family, village.
Akvo
But it's not only innovation in product. It's also about innovation in process. Later same year, Twestival in Norrköping and Global was arranged again - Twestival Local.
This time, once again, the charity recipent was water-related, and it was community-chosen. We were chosing Akvo, and a water project in Tblisi, Georgia. Also, the co-founder of Akvo, Thomas Bjelkeman, was invited as guest speaker.
Akvo represents a new way of matching project with donor. Take a look!
In sum - it's all about creating strong action in new ways and manners. Where the biggest world problems could turn out to be even greater business opportunities. And the area of "fixing the water problem" is no exception.
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