E217: Empty – Imagine no water

Rather than thinking about purifiying water or storing water or water conservation, water reduction or grey water substitution, imagine no water. Designers for the following products and links were working with this premise or brief. From Inhabitat, here is a fog and dew collector.

lon Alex Gross’s fog and dew collectors provide a low-tech way for people in arid, developing regions to collect drinking water. Gross uses design to show users how individuals can come up with their own answers to ecological and technical problems. His method fuses the ancient methods of fog harvesting and dew collection with modern improvements such as super light materials and internet connectivity.

The fog collector uses a screen to catch fog droplets in the air and turn them into drinking water. The 2 meter mesh surface can collect up to 10 liters of water in 24 hours. It can be used during day or night, and is most efficient when faced against the wind in high ground.

The dew collector is made of a special laminate foil that attracts dew drops. Despite only collecting water at night, the dew collector is very effective. It weighs just 400 grams, yet can collect up to 1.5 liters of clean water per night. It is most efficient when positioned on the ground in conditions of 50% humidity or more.

Again, to imagine a life with water supply on empty and you live by the ocean.

I am at a low enough income level I can appreciate a product that uses sunshine (free) and saltwater (free) and turns it into drinkable water. Just imagine the magic this could create in the lives of millions all around the thousands of miles of coasts of Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas and any other water-scarce, drought struggling areas of the world right now this very minute.

This is Watercone, sun-powered water desalinator featured in Inhabitat.

The Watercone makes salt and brackish water fresh using only the sun, evaporation, and a simple, portable plastic cone.

Every day 5000 children die as a result of unsafe water-related diseases, and Watercone provides up to 1.6 liters a day, covering all of a child’s daily water needs.

The process is simple- fill the black base pan with salty or brackish water, float the cone on top. The black pan absorbs sunlight and heats up the water to support evaporation. Through condensation, the evaporated water collects in the form of droplets on the inner wall of the cone. These droplets trickle down the inner wall into a circular trough at the inner base of the cone. The cone can then be flipped over and the fresh water poured out.

Additional information on water retrieval at Casaubon’s Book