Extracting water from the air

Water tower wins World Design Impact Prize for tackling water problem

Every other year, the World Design Impact Prize is awarded to a project that uses design to tackle a pressing and widely felt problem. The most recent recipient, as reported by Inhabitat, is a water tower built to extract drinking water straight from the air.

Warka Water is the brainchild of an Italian industrial designer Arturo Vittori. His design consists of a bamboo frame holding up a mesh netting that’s been especially built to harvest rain, fog, and dew droplets from the air. The tower is made from materials found locally, and it’s simple enough for a team of six to put it together in less than a week. Vitorri made his first prototype in 2012, and his latest iteration is capable of collecting up to 100 litres of drinking water in a single day.

Since May last year, Warka Water’s 3.2 prototype has provided water to villagers of the Dorze Community in Ethiopia, a country where less than half the population has access to a clean water source. They’re now looking to expand to more parts of the world and are aiming to achieve mass production by 2019.