Drought, Get Out!

Can we get some water over here? *HACK* 

This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.

One-sixth of earth’s population lives in the desert. Beautiful, unspoiled. . . But dry!

Our planet is covered in water, but most of it is saltwater. Turning saltwater into usable freshwater is costly and requires a lot of energy. How could we bring more drinkable water to deserts?

Afeefa Rahman and team at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne have an idea! But it’s gonna need a new invention that can…

One: collect the water vapor that floats above oceans near coastlines… Two: move the vapor inland… And three: cool it and condense into LIQUID FRESHWATER. 

The team designed this method using data from fourteen water-stressed locations around the world. Their calculations suggest each collector could provide for half a million people on average! 

The team anticipates such a technique could supply in-need populations with fresh water. No need for expensive salt removal!

This could make a big splash, no DROUGHT about it!


Reference:

Rahman, A., Kumar, P., & Dominguez, F. (2022). Increasing freshwater supply to sustainably address global water security at scale. Scientific Reports, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24314-2