The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Because, as the project’s motto points out, every drop counts. Eventually, AV hopes WarkaWater towers might populate the landscape, each providing over 25 gallons of water a day. This prototype will be erected in Ethiopia in early 2015 and monitored for one year by local groups. “Now we are on the version called 3.1, which has been the best of the results we have achieved so far,” Vittori said. We are understanding the physics behind it, which is simple and not really simple at the same time.”įor instance, the shape and height of the tower, which attracts both rain and condensation, greatly influences water collection amounts. “Daily research is very dependent on the weather and the weather is never the same. Sometimes bad,” Vittori said of the worldwide outdoor tests from Beirut to Brazil to Munich. Two years and 10 prototypes later, the WarkaWater tower has evolved, but not without trial and error. WarkaWater towers would follow suit as an alluring gathering place, with shade, solar-powered lights, and a design inspired by local architecture and crafts.Ī render of what the WarkaWater will look like when built. It serves as a shady gathering place for education, traditional ceremonies, and prayer. The Warka tree, from which WarkaWater plucks its name, is a 100-foot-tall tree, and unfortunately one that is falling prey to deforestation. “This is something we understood studying the culture and also talking to Ethiopians,” said Vittori. And the only way this would happen was by integrating the WarkaWater tower into daily life. Locals also had to maintain the apparatus without regular outside labor or specialized equipment. There were other design conditions: Materials would be local (like the junco mesh which collects the water) and low-cost (like the bamboo skeleton of the tower). AV studied the beettle, as well as looking to prehistoric dew ponds and ancient Egypt’s condensation-capturing rock piles. The Namib beetle lives in the desert collecting dew on its bumpy shell and funneling the water into its mouth. Luckily, there was a local condensation-capturing expert on hand. This was especially true in the desert with the pronounced difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures–the recipe for condensation. “Air always contains a certain amount of water,” Vittori said. So instead of looking down, AV looked up. Wells built over the last two decades in some large villages have helped with water shortages, but their upkeep and location mean they’ve only benefited some. That’s less than most people flush away each day, but a significant quantity in a country where some 60 million people lack sufficient potable water.The WarkaWater tower v1.1. Based on tests performed in its Italian lab, the company claims the latest iteration can harvest 13 to 26.4 gallons of water daily. The company has a newer version of the WarkaWater and a Kickstarter campaign to fund field testing in Ethiopia later this year. We wrote about the towers last year when Vittori unveiled a full-size prototype. The WarkaWater functions in much the same way, using mesh netting to capture moisture and direct it into hygienic holding tank accessed via a spout. Often built as high-rising stone structures, air wells gather moisture from the air and funnel it into a basin for collection. This isn’t a new idea-people have been doing this for as long as they've needed water, often with air wells. Rather, the structure is designed to wring water out of the air, providing a sustainable source of H 2O for developing countries.Ĭreated by Arturo Vittori and his team at Architecture and Vision, the towers harvest water from rain, fog and dew. The spindly tower, of latticed bamboo lined with orange polyester mesh, isn’t art-though it does kind of look like it. At 30 feet tall and 13 feet wide, it’s not half as big as its namesake tree (which can loom 75 feet tall), but it’s striking nonetheless. The WarkaWater tower is an unlikely structure to find jutting from the Ethiopian landscape.
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