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Map provided by drought.gov
Since the Inca’s, civilization has used biomimicry to pull water out of the air, in order to fill their irrigation channels and cisterns, leading to one of the most revered and longevic Western empires. However, nowadays, with a growing population and a world in significant drought, the need for quenching our international thirst is at a dire level.
Luckily, we are not without options; we just have to be proactive in educating influencers about the benefits of new and old technology, while looking back at history to solve existential problems.
Enter the Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG). In the past, the Incas used fog fences to passively pull water out of the air, in their humid, yet surprisingly liquid scarce environment. And it is their descendants that are taking a lesson from history and applying it to solve their current water crisis.
According to Popular Mechanics, in the present era, Peruvian scientists have looked to the past to bring potable H2O to the drought ridden city of Lima, Peru; which exists on the border of one of the most arid deserts in the world — the Atacama Desert . And they have done so quite cleverly by leveraging the necessary evil of advertising to help finance this endeavor.
Atmospheric Water Generator billboard in Lima, Peru. Image source: Popular Mechanics
This is accomplished through deploying a billboard, where internally, it contains an AWG, that, from its humid air, pulls 96 liters of water/day, in the blueprint of something that would have been there already. Additionally, Peru’s University of Engineering and Technology said they installed it for less than $1200, a price that modern billboard advertising could easily offset (caveat: I have no idea if this cost includes the sponsorship offset).
Now imagine these being applied in California, or Oklahoma, where billboards are rampant, but water is not.
Could this be capitalism saving the world? Who knows, but it’d be interesting to find out.