Earlier this year, the product's design passed national testing and evaluation. The current model uses solid tires to avoid punctures, and is made of materials resistant to ultraviolet light to prevent the plastic aging. It is operated manually with no power source.
Using only a few screws and nuts, the wheelbarrow is made up of eight components and can be assembled in three minutes. It weighs less than 10 kg, making it is easy to transport when nomads move to another area.
The wheelbarrows will cost 1,000 yuan (148 U.S. dollars) each. The first batch of 1,000 wheelbarrows was produced by Caozhou Xinrui, a chassis panel manufacturer in Hebei Province, thanks to a donation of 1 million yuan from Shanghai Hydraulic Engineering Group.
All 1,000 wheelbarrows have been given to Tibetan nomads with financial difficulties in Nagqu and Damxung counties. To qualify for a free wheelbarrow each family was asked to donate two bags of dung to a local school or kindergarten. The program was organized by Beijing Society of Workers Contributing to Tibet's Development, a non-governmental public welfare organization.
Fan Xiaojian, director of the society, is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He and 20 other political advisors put forward a proposal earlier this year, suggesting the Ministry of Agriculture and other governmental departments support the development of the wheelbarrows.
"It is not a huge invention, but it will significantly assist Tibetan women and help improve the lives of nomadic families," he said.
There are 750,000 nomadic herding families in Tibet and the Tibetan-inhabited areas of Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu provinces. Dung will continue to be their major residential energy resource as moving with their herds will not allow them convenient access to electricity supplies even after China has achieved its goal of building a moderately prosperous society by 2020, Fan said.
"To help nomadic families live a better life, we not only need giant projects such as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, but also practical inventions like this wheelbarrow," he said.
Wang Jian, secretary-general of Beijing Society of Workers Contributing to Tibet's Development, worked in Tibet for 40 years before retirement. He said poverty alleviation on the plateau is challenging as the harsh natural environment has restricted its development.
"On the Tibetan plateau, there are only two seasons, winter and almost winter. Dung is vital for the subsistence of each family. We have every reason to make dung collection more efficient and less arduous," said Wang.
As the wheelbarrow continues to be in trial use in the two Tibetan counties, Wang Guanghui said large-scale production will depend on feedback from the nomads.
"The product design may be further improved. The previous model was green, but we changed it to orange because we thought the color would stand out and could help rescuers locate nomads if there was a natural disaster," he said.
