Warka Water Towers Collect Clean Drinking Water From The 'Lakes In The Air'

The Warka water towers are intended to support remote communities

Arturo Vittori’s Warka water towers harvest clean drinking water from the air

Arturo Vittori got the idea for the project after visiting isolated communities on a high plateau in the northeast region of Ethiopia and he witnessed villagers who lived in environments often without running water, electricity, a toilet, or a shower. He observed how women and children had to walk miles to shallow, unprotected ponds where water is often contaminated with animal and human waste.

The project is named Warka water towers after the warka tree that grows in the region.

Comprising a bamboo frame that supports a mesh polyester material inside, the tower is both cheap and easy to build. atmospheric water vapor from either rain, fog, or dew, condenses against the cold surface of the mesh, forming droplets of liquid water that trickle down into a reservoir found at the bottom of the structure. a fabric canopy shades the lower sections of the tower to prevent the collected water from evaporating. performance is weather dependent but each tower has the capability of providing a community with up to 100 liters of water per day.

“The entire tower is very light – it’s just 80 kilograms – and it is 12 meters high, so that is the big challenge,” Vittori explains. “How do we make it possible to build without scaffolding, without machinery, only by constructing by hand?”

Advances in 2D and 3D modelling software have enabled him to iterate the design relatively quickly, Vittori says.

“In order to achieve this, the real technology is in the software,” he explains. “The design is basically parametric. Once we have designed the shape, we can improve it very easily without having to design it again [from scratch]. In a few seconds, we already have another option.”

Once he has fully refined the design, Vittori says he will make it available for anyone to use.

“An important part of the project is that this is an open-source concept,” he says. “The local community will be trained how to make it, and they will be free to repeat it as much as they like.”

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