Planet Earth is running out of fresh water, and this problem is only expected to worsen in the coming years. To meet the growing demand, limiting recycling and water use will not help yet. Scientists will need to find new sources of this life-sustaining fluid to meet our needs. One of the currently untapped resources is water vapor above the oceans, whose reserves are almost unlimited.

A new study shows how collection structures can be used to convert this steam into drinking water.

“Ultimately, we will need to find a way to increase the freshwater supply, as supplying and reusing water from existing sources, although necessary, will not be sufficient to meet human needs,” says civil engineer and environmentalist Praveen Kumar. university. Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“We think our newly proposed method can do this on a large scale.” About 210 meters (689 feet) wide and 100 meters (328 feet) high — roughly the height of a large cruise ship — the proposed structure mimics the natural water cycle in transporting, condensing and collecting water.

The moist air will be carried over the ocean surface to the nearest shore, where cooling systems can condense the water vapor into a liquid. According to the team, they will all be powered by renewable wind or solar power. While the researchers didn’t provide details of their design, they calculated the amount of moisture removed at 14 research sites around the world. Just one of these plants can potentially meet the average daily drinking water needs of approximately 500,000 people.

This could be a huge addition to desalination plants already operating in many parts of the world to remove dissolved salts from seawater. “This hasn’t been done before, and I think it’s because researchers are so focused on ground-based solutions, but our work actually shows that there are other options,” said atmospheric phenomena expert Francina Dominguez of the University of Illinois at Urbana. champagne. Urbana-Champaign. Fresh water for drinking, washing and irrigation accounts for only 3 percent of the world’s water resources, many of which are too polluted or unsuitable for comfortable use.

While we’ve seen some promising projects that could expand our access to freshwater resources, we’re still waiting for technology that can really make a difference at scale. The lack of safe drinking water often hits the world’s poorest hardest, with indirect effects on health, security and income.

Something like the system proposed here can make a huge difference without harming ecosystems or the environment. The researchers also evaluated the potential impacts of climate change and arid regions as part of their study, but concluded that their systems will be resilient even as the world warms.

“Climate projections show that steam flow in the ocean will only increase over time, providing even more freshwater supplies,” says Rahman. “So the idea we propose will be done under climate change.” “It provides a much-needed and effective approach to climate change adaptation, particularly for vulnerable populations living in arid and semi-arid regions of the world.”