This is Mohammed Bah Abba’s Pot-in-pot invention. In northern Nigeria, where Mohammed is from, over 90% of the villages have no electricity. His invention, which he won a Rolex Award for (and $100,000), is a refrigerator than runs without electricity.
Here’s how it works. You take a smaller pot and put it inside a larger unglazed pot. Fill the space in between them with wet sand, and cover the top with a wet cloth. When the water evaporates, it pulls the heat out with it, making the inside cold. It’s a natural, cheap, easy-to-make refrigerator.
So, instead of perishable foods rotting after only three days, they can last up to three weeks. Obviously, this has the potential to change their lives. And it already has — there are more girls attending school, for example, as their families no longer need them to sell food in the market.
Original web page published in German. Click link for google translated page to english. Includes more pictures.
http://www.spirits-in-berlin.de/Themen/Kuhlschrank/kuhlschrank.html
Here’s another link for the Rolex Award site. Page published in flash :-(
That is very interesting. And more interesting that it would receive a financial award. Uncomplicated. Inexpensive. Environmentally sound. And useful. That it has received recognition is very exciting.
I thought the article was very interesting too. This guys sells the jar-fridge systems to his neighbouring communities for forty cents a piece (10? profit).
This fridge would be min. priced $120US at North American boutique stores. Unfortunately it would be too expensive to keep the sand moist with the special bottled water they would recommend you use.