Solar Powered Condenser Turns Ambient Humidity into Drinking Water.
MIT and UC-Berkeley Scientists recently demonstrated a new device designed to collect water straight from ambient air using only solar power.
This water harvester can even pull moisture in desert climates where humidity is as low as 20 percent.
At any moment, it’s estimated that atmosphere contains about 3,100 cubic miles of water vapor, which is enough to cover the entire surface of the Earth with one inch of water if it fell all at once.
In addition to its most visible form, clouds, atmospheric water is also present in clear air and the entire system is recycled every nine days.
Solar Powered Condenser; Off-Grid Water Harvester Researchers at MIT, in collaboration with the University of California Berkeley, have developed a prototype for a device that pulls water from clear air using solar power.
The device, reported in the journal Science, is an open air chamber containing a lattice-like structure made from a metal-organic framework (MOF), produced at the UC-Berkeley.
By the same year, two-thirds of the global population could be living under water-stressed conditions.
Developing solutions to sanitize water and produce it where it is scarce is a major challenge for many countries.
And there’s no resource more accessible than ambient air.

Water Hole: No running water on Navajo Nation reservation.
Navajo Nation members have scarce access to running water in Monument Valley, which spans Arizona and Utah.
This one, leading to a one-spigot watering hole a few miles away, is the main water supply for about 900 people living nearby.
It’s about nine miles one way from my house to the nearest water hole.” Leaders of the Navajo Water Project, a non-profit working to bring more running water to Navajo homes in New Mexico and clean water to an Arizona school for youths who are disabled, estimate about 40 percent of Navajo Nation members don’t have access to running water in their homes.
In tiny Oljato, where about 900 people live in this Monument Valley community, traveling to get water is a normal part of life, with some regretting it and others shrugging it off.
“That is the big challenge,” said John, who is not related to Lionel John.
“We have to haul in water just to live off of,” Mark Holiday said.
“That is an issue with the Navajo EPA,” John said.
The challenge to a rural area is that it’s hard to bring qualified people in because it’s not easy living out there in a rural area.
Gregory Holiday, a member of the Navajo Nation, said even if he had access to running water he doesn’t trust that it is safe to drink, saying longterm uranium mining in the area contaminated the water.

Vikram Solar teams up with Israel’s WaterGen to source drinking water from air.
Kolkata-based Vikram Solar has teamed up with Israel’s WaterGen to manufacture a harvester to address safe and clean drinking water issue.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has already been signed between the two firms to form a joint venture for manufacturing solar-powered water harvester using the Israeli technology that will suit the Indian conditions.
The technology is relevant to countries like India where a large part of population still does not have access to safe and clean drinking water.
Hopefully, the deal will get through in the next few days," WaterGen Business Development officer Maor Zrahyahu said.
A product with the unique water solution technology will be developed in a such way that is energy efficient and cost effective, he said without disclosing about investment.
This would help provide drinking water access to people in remote places making best use of easily available natural resources — air and humidity, he added.
According to WaterGen, the water harvesting device can be of different sizes depending on the extent of water to be harvested from atmosphere.
WaterGen said it has systems that can produce up to 7,000 litres of clean drinking water a day depending on temperature and humidity conditions.
The drinking water harvested from atmosphere is safe and can be tested for the quality.

A two-year project to bring safe, affordable drinking water to more than 50,000 of the poorest residents in Nairobi, Kenya, has now been inaugurated after successful completion earlier this year.
The initiative was co-funded by OFID (the OPEC Fund for International Development), the UK Government’s Department for International Development and Borealis and Borouge through their joint corporate social responsibility programme Water for the World™.
The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company has in the past found it difficult to invest in these services because of the haphazard design of the settlements, inadequate resources within the utility and a perception that residents would be unwilling to pay for services.
Residents without access to piped supplies therefore buy water from private street vendors, at much higher prices.
The five partners came together to improve drinking water supplies in Nairobi’s Korogocho and Kahawa Soweto informal settlements.
We are proud to have been part of this project and will continue to support sustainable development across the globe.” “WSUP works with local providers to help them deliver the water and sanitation services and infrastructure that are so desperately needed by low-income urban communities,” explains Bill Peacock, WSUP’s Director of Programmes.
In 2007, Borealis together with Borouge launched Water for the World, a partnership programme to advance solutions, expertise and know-how to address the global water challenge.
The programme spans a full range of activities at global and regional levels, in science, industry and for local communities, and focuses on three key areas: Improving access to water and sanitation through local projects Preserving water resources through sustainable water management practices Advancing best practices and raising awareness in communities and across the value-chain Watch this movie or go to waterfortheworld.net to learn more about this project.
For further information please contact: Borealis: Virginia Mesicek External Communications Manager tel.
: +43 1 515 64321 (Vienna, Austria) e-mail: f.elshhati@ofid.org WSUP: Steve Metcalfe Head of Communications tel.

Bottled Or Boxed, There’s Water, Water Everywhere.
Image via Shutterstock.
Move over Coke and Pepsi, step aside Dr. Pepper, stand down, 7 Up.
And the war is not over.
Public health officials generally advise drinking 6 to 8 glasses of water a day.
If you drink from plastic bottles, you’re spending $1,400 a year for hydration, but you drink tap water, your cost is 50 cents.
Well, a few wineries have tried it, with mixed results.
But as for wine in plastic bottles, which would seem to make even more sense for everyday wines?
Millions of them.
(Worldwide, over 600 million people do not have such access.)

Drinking water from air to soon see the light of day.
New Delhi, May 14 (PTI) Imagine an appliance that pulls out water from air!
Kolkata-based Vikram Solar has teamed up with Israels WaterGen to manufacture a harvester to address safe and clean drinking water issue.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has already been signed between the two firms to form a joint venture for manufacturing solar-powered water harvester using the Israeli technology that will suit the Indian conditions.
The technology is relevant to countries like India where a large part of population still does not have access to safe and clean drinking water.
"We are working seriously to finalise the joint venture.
Hopefully, the deal will get through in the next few days," WaterGen Business Development officer Maor Zrahyahu told PTI.
A product with the unique water solution technology will be developed in a such way that is energy efficient and cost effective, he said without disclosing about investment.
According to WaterGen, the water harvesting device can be of different sizes depending on the extent of water to be harvested from atmosphere.
WaterGen said it has systems that can produce up to 7,000 litres of clean drinking water a day depending on temperature and humidity conditions.

Mayor Jack Smiley calls on Altus residents to be stewards of water supply in honor of Drinking Water Week.
The City of Altus and the American Water Works Association or AWWA are celebrating Drinking Water Week and the role clean drinking water plays in the United States.
The city workers have been operating a public water system since 1927, the year the Ambursen Dam at Lake Lugert-Altus was completed and the first water treatment plant for the area was built.
As part-owner of the Mountain Park Master Conservancy District, the money from the city for construction and maintenance gives the municipality water rights from assures the reservoir.
“The water currently produced is the cleanest, safest water ever produced in our city’s history.” Supervisor Gene Leister, Senior Operator Ronnie Jones, Lab Technician Rick Stebbens, and operators Tim Williams, E.M. Collier, Tim Jeffrey, Tia Dameron and C.J.
Morris have been licensed by the State of Oklahoma through a process that includes higher level algebra and chemistry exams.
According to Barron, the Altus Water Treatment Plant runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week and stores about one day’s worth of treated water in case the plant needs to be shut down for short-term maintenance.
We are extremely proud of the work accomplished by our water treatment operators.” Access to water from Tom Steed Reservoir not only provides drinking water to Altus residents, but also provides fire protection, supports industrial and commercials business and promotes a healthy environment, Barron said.
We should all know how to find and fix leaks, care for our home’s pipes, and support our utility’s investment in water infrastructure,” AWWA Chief Executive Officer David LaFrance said.
Reach Katrina Goforth at 580-482-1221, ext.

Website addresses drinking water crisis.
The website, SafeWaterForCA.org, will also be advertised on the radio around the state in areas with high numbers of contaminated water systems.
“Contaminated drinking water is an issue that matters to everyone,” Wade Crowfoot of the Water Foundation said.
“Access to safe and affordable drinking water is a human right and we need to be innovative and aggressive in finding solutions.
Some of these families have been without clean water for over a decade.
That is not acceptable.” As many as one million Californians are exposed to unsafe, contaminated drinking water in their homes, schools and businesses.
SafeWaterForCA.org is an educational campaign bringing awareness to this drinking water crisis.
The website includes powerful testimony from individuals who have lived or are living with contaminated water, news articles, facts surrounding the drinking water crisis and polling information commissioned by the Water Foundation in January.
The Water Foundation is a nonprofit public foundation that is transforming how water is managed so communities and natural places thrive.
It is the only grantmaking foundation entirely focused on improving the way water is used and managed in the American West.

However, a multiyear, interdisciplinary study of water use in one of the country’s rural areas conducted by a team of Vanderbilt University researchers has uncovered two major problems not reflected in the national statistics.
“The most surprising and disturbing result of this research was discovering that, in the communities we studied, there was almost no reliable year-round access to safe drinking water, while most residents did not know that their water was unsafe.
Even when almost all water was unhealthily salty and had unsafe levels of arsenic and other chemicals, most people reported that the water tasted good and used it regularly,” summarized co-author Jonathan Gilligan, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt.
In March, the journal’s publisher, Taylor & Francis, featured the article to mark World Water Day and made it free for anyone to read through the end of May.
“To mark this year’s World Water Day, we wanted to draw attention to a range of articles that both mark the latest thinking in the field and have ‘real world’ impact,” explained Daniel Pullin, content coordinator of the Taylor & Francis Group.
Against the backdrop of 663 million people globally living without a safe water supply close to home, this research is especially important in raising awareness during a time of crisis.” The researchers studied several rural communities in southwestern Bangladesh, combining social and natural sciences to understand regional and seasonal variation in water security.
They also measured water quality in both rainy and dry seasons.
They found that during the rainy season most people collected rainwater, which provided them with an ample supply of safe drinking water.
“Fixing a problem begins with knowing that there is a problem, so we are continuing to work with colleagues in Bangladesh to extend this research to many more communities and to raise awareness of these critical issues,” Gilligan said.
Members of the interdisciplinary research team include environmental engineering doctoral student Laura Benneyworth, Professors of Earth and Environmental Sciences John Ayers and Stephen Goodbred, earth and environmental sciences master’s students Gregory George and David Fry, Professor of Sociology Katharine Donato and sociology doctoral student Bhumika Piya from Vanderbilt; Amanda Carrico from the University of Colorado at Boulder; and Rezaul Karim and Farjana Akter from Khulna University in Bangladesh.

Most people do not know their rights to free drinking water from businesses and public buildings, a survey says.
The Keep Britain Tidy poll says only 25% of the public know when they can ask for water for free – while 71% feel awkward asking for water from venues if they are not a customer.
This means pubs, bars, nightclubs, cafes, restaurants, takeaway food and drink outlets, cinemas, theatres, and even village and community halls – so long as they are authorised to serve alcohol.
However, these premises can charge people for the use of a glass – or their service – when serving the "free" tap water.
There is no law regarding the provision of drinking water in licensed premises in Northern Ireland.
Unlicensed premises Unlicensed premises in the UK do not have to legally supply free drinking water.
Schools are legally required to provide drinking water for pupils at all times in England, Scotland and Wales – but not Northern Ireland.
Of the people taking part in the poll, only 7% said they drink from water fountains or public taps – while 55% were concerned about the cleanliness of public water taps, fountains and dispensers.
Just 11% said they would pop into a cafe or restaurant to ask for tap water.
These include: encouraging businesses to provide free drinking water to both customers and non-customers encouraging transport providers and hubs to improve access to free water raising public awareness of the cleanliness and quality of UK tap water.