Italian architects have developed a special design that allows you to collect water from the air. In 2016, they received the World Design Impact Prize for their invention.
Numerous projects aimed at collecting drinking water have been known for a long time. However, architects from Italy decided to develop a prototype that would be as affordable as possible and able to function in the poorest African regions. The Warka Water system is assembled from local materials. Its price is 1000 dollars. It can collect about 100 liters of water per day. This system does not need electricity, since it only needs evaporation and condensation, as well as gravity. The structure consists of bamboo rods, which are assembled in the form of a tower, and a permeable net stretched inside. Water droplets that condense from mist and dew settle on the grid and are collected in a tank by means of a collector along with rainwater.
The architects originally intended to create a device that could be assembled by locals without the use of additional tools. Some versions of Warka Water provide for the arrangement of a canopy around the system with a radius of 10m. Thus, the tower turns into a kind of social center. The inventors tested twelve prototypes. The parameters of the most successful design are 3,7 m in diameter with a height of 9,5 m. It will take 10 people and 1 day of work to build the system.
In 2019, it is planned to fully implement the project and massively install towers across the continent. Until then, design testing will continue. This is necessary in order to find the optimal solution that will allow you to collect water with maximum efficiency, and will also have an affordable price. Anyone can assist in the development and follow the progress of work on a specialized website