Ray de Vries
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. And so it was with the devastating drought that plagued South Africa for the past five years.
It started in KZN and spread westwards across the country. While most of the country is now in a rainfall cycle, it will not be long before we enter a drought cycle again.
I started Air Water, an atmospheric water-generation company, during the drought cycle. The coming drought cycles are expected to get worse, leading to massive famine, misery and the death of many millions of people.
But the good news is that this need not be the case. I believe I have the solution to the crisis in Air Water. Air water is water that is made from the humidity in the air. Air is drawn across a cooling coil and the resultant condensation is passed through a filtration and UV light sterilisation process, making it perfectly pure for drinking.
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The next world war will be over water, however, there is no reason that the world needs to go to war over something that is readily available almost everywhere. We just need to change our thinking and realise that the solution is right under our noses.
There are 100 million, billion litres of water in the atmosphere and it is stable. There is never more and never less. Water is a reusable resource that is used by all living things on the earth. Once used, it is passed back into the atmosphere. This is known as the hydrological cycle – making it 100% sustainable.
Man, over thousands of years, has dammed up rivers to create stores of water for his convenience. The problem in today’s age is that the rainfall patterns have changed because of climate change and the dams are not as dependable as they used to be.
Water crises are presenting themselves all over the world and more often. And not only is water shortage a problem but the lack of clean (potable) water for human consumption is of great concern. I believe harvesting humidity is the answer as it involves making water where it is needed as opposed to taking water to where it is needed.