An article written by Manzoor Qadir and Vladimir Smakhtin, Assistant Director and Director, respectively, of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health, United Nations University, reports 5 possible technologies for harvesting water in water-scarce areas of the world. There isn't much specific information about the technologies themselves, but the short description of each of the technologies includes a link to a scientific paper describing that process. These are probably too academic for many students, but the abstracts and conclusions give an overview of the information.
Link to the article: https://theconversation.com/five-unusual-technologies-for-harvesting-water-in-dry-areas-154031
The 5 technologies, with part of their description from the article, are:
- Catching fog: Fog can be collected using a vertical mesh that intercepts the droplet stream. This water then runs down into a water collection, storage and distribution system.
- Cloud seeding: This technology involves dispersing small particles into clouds or in their vicinity. These particles act as a starting point for raindrops or ice crystals, promoting their formation. In turn, this makes it more likely to rain or snow.
- Minimising evaporation: There are two major types of micro-catchment rainwater harvesting systems. One is water harvesting via rooftop systems where runoff is collected and stored in tanks or similar devices. This water is used domestically or for livestock watering. The second is water harvesting for agriculture, which involves collecting the rainwater that runs off a catchment area in a small reservoir or in the root zone of a cultivated area.
- Desalinating seawater: The process of desalination removes salt from seawater or brackish groundwater to make them drinkable.
- Iceberg harvesting: Moving an iceberg across the ocean is technically possible, based on a theoretical four-part process. It would require locating a suitable source and supply, calculating the necessary towing power requirements, accurately predicting melting in transit, and estimating the economic feasibility of the entire endeavour.
The first sentence of the article is: "Water scarcity is among the top five global risks affecting people's wellbeing." Students could brainstorm what they think the other four global risks are. The risks are divided into two types: risks in terms of likelihood and risks in terms of impact. So students could also rate their ideas according to those factors. The sentence contains a link to the World Economic Forum Global Risk Report 2020, so their answers can be compared to the list in the report. This is from that report:
The Top 5 Global Risks in Terms of Likelihood:
- Extreme weather
- Climate action failure
- Natural disasters
- Biodiversity loss
- Human-made environmental disasters
- Climate action failure
- Weapons of mass destruction
- Biodiversity loss
- Extreme weather
- Water crises
For the longer lists of global risks, in terms of likelihood and impact, here is the link to the entire report: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risk_Report_2020.pdf
Types of water:
- cloud water
- desalinated water
- drinking water
- droplet stream
- drought
- freshwater
- fog
- groundwater
- iceberg
- municipal water supply
- precipitation
- polar ice caps
- rainfall
- runoff
- seawater
- water embedded in fog
- water resources
- water-scarce area
- absorbing (water)
- dispersing (small particles)
- evaporate
- melting
- runs off
- (resources can be) tapped
- catchment
- desalination
- micro-catchment
- rain enhancement
- water cycle
- water harvesting
- water insecurity factors
- water scarcity
- water shortages
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