Sustainable Water Harvesting Technique by Condensation of Water through Atmosphere in an Optimized Approach for Future Cities in India

Abstract

Water is one of the vital needs of humans. Many rural areas lack the water infrastructure to fulfil their basic needs. About 8-10% of the people lack safe drinking water which causes health issues and deaths. Water harvesting structures (WHS) is a vertical conical structure designed to harvest potable water from the atmosphere. In this research work, WHS is constructed by using material such as bamboo, polyester mesh which absorbs the water molecules from humid mist present in atmosphere. This absorbed water passes through the mesh and forms water droplets through condensation and is collected under the action of gravity. Considering the effect of large formation of fog, seasonal rain and dew during majority of the seasons in a year, WHS was constructed keeping Rasayani (Maharashtra) as the study area. Due to the geographical assistance provided by this study area, it was possible to extract water from air at high altitude hence proved to be a sustainable method for the collection of water from atmosphere. Water harvested in this WHS was pure and can be utilized for various domestic purpose like drinking, cooking, etc. This research signifies that by constructing WHS by locally available material, a sustainable low initial cost structure was constructed with less maintenance and zero energy requirement.