Water-From-Air Technologies Can Help Solve Drinking Water Scarcities

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Water-From-Air Technologies Can Help Solve Drinking Water Scarcities

Quantifying the water-from-air resource enables targeting selected cities where installing strategically located stand-alone processors of atmospheric water vapor will have the quickest, most beneficial impact for people facing water scarcities.

Water scarcity is imminent for people living in Delhi (22 million), Manila (21 million), Mexico City (19 million), Beijing (17 million), Mumbai (17 million), Calcutta (14 million), Lagos (12 million), Bangalore (9 million), Chennai (9 million), Hyderabad (8 million), Johannesburg (8 million), Lahore (8 million), Tehran (7 million), Shenyang (6 million), Riyadh (5 million), Abidjan (4 million), Caracas (3 million), Tel-Aviv (3 million), Abu Dhabi (2 million), Dubai (2 million), Cotonou (1 million), Haifa (1 million), and Jerusalem (1 million). These selected cities were defined by various criteria as facing the challenge of perennial water shortages in a study led by Robert MacDonald of The Nature Conservancy.1, 2Urban population growth is the main problem. Climate change is likely to contribute to the water scarcity problem by altering unfavorably the seasonal distribution of precipitation. Water scarce cities lack sustainable sources of surface or groundwater within a 100-km radius.

How much water is available in the atmosphere surrounding these cities? If enough is available it may be practical to distribute water-from-air machines (processors of atmospheric water vapor; mechanical dehumidifiers integrated with water treatment systems, often called atmospheric water generators) in these cities for a decentralized water supply solution. Decentralization is attractive because infrastructure can be built in a modular fashion. There is no need for the high capital cost of a massive central water treatment plant and distribution infrastructure. This approach is an attractive solution for tropical sites where population growth causes water consumption to outstrip the capacity of local treated liquid water resources (whatever their raw-state quality) to meet the demand.

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