Warka Water Finds a Solution to Drought
Fresh water is one of the world’s most precious resources. Without water, life as we know on this planet, would not exist. Even though people can survive without food for a month, they cannot survive more than seven days without drinking water. Even though many know of this fact, clean, fresh water as a resource is often undervalued, especially in Western society. Worldwide, 768 million people don’t have access to safe drinking water. WarkaWater is out to do something about it.
What is WarkaWater?
WarkaWater is a brilliant design developed by Italian designer Arturo Vittori and Swiss architect Andreas Vogler, along with their design firm, Architecture and Vision. The duo got the inspiration to do something about the scarcity of clean drinking water when visiting Ethiopia in 2012. At the time, they were shocked to see women and children walking for miles to collect drinking water that was often contaminated.
The result was an innovative tower that looks like an artistic palm tree but actually pulls water out of the atmosphere. WarkaWater collects drinking water through condensation. That technique is not new, but Vittori and Vogler say their design is more efficient as it’s able to produce up to 26 gallons of potable water every day, which can supply up to seven people. WarkaWater is constructed on a 30-foot bamboo frame along with a nylon net that has the ability to harvest fog, thus producing water. The net may be lowered for repairs and to allow for measurement of water levels.
An Inexpensive and Award-Winning Solution
The beauty of WarkaWater, which is named after an Ethiopian fig tree, is that it is a sensible, inexpensive solution that appears to be working well in the water-starved communities where it has already been placed. Each tower only costs $550, which is much less than the cost to dig a well. The price is also thousands of dollars less than other Western-based solution
WarkaWater appears to be succeeding in the Ethiopian community where it has been placed, so much so that the innovative tower received the World Design Impact Prize in 2016. In addition to the frame and mesh, each tower has a rope, a canopy and a water tank, all of which may be easily assembled by a small team of villagers in three days without any special tools.
The southern Ethiopian community of Dorze received a prototype in 2015, following a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the project. A canopy that each tower provides also gives shade to the community where it is installed and is a natural for a gathering space.
The Future of WarkaWater
Architecture and Vision is also working on creating a water-efficient vegetable garden at the base of the tower to further help the communities in which the towers will be installed. Other possible improvements include solar panels and LED bulbs to provide light at night.
WarkaWater may also be useful in other water-starved areas such as deserts, which often have dramatic temperature changes between night and day that lead to the water condensation that the tower collects.
