The Warka Water Tower can be seen jutting from the Ethiopian landscape. A structure, 30 feet tall and 13 feet wide, is noticeable. The spindly tower, of latticed bamboo lined with orange polyester mesh, is designed to wring water out of the air, providing a sustainable source of freshwater for developing countries.
Created by Arturo Vittori and his team at Architecture and Vision, the towers harvest water from rain, fog, and dew. This isn’t a new idea—people have been doing this for as long as they've needed water, often with air wells. The Warka Water functions in much the same way, using mesh netting to capture moisture and direct it into hygienic holding tank accessed via a spout. Vittori had revealed a prototype of this structure a year ago. But the fully functional prototype now has some major upgrades.
The exterior is of bamboo, the top of the tower has reflective pieces to deter birds, and the structure is larger than the original prototype (13 feet wide, up from 7). This doubled the surface area of its water-resistant polyester mesh netting, so more water is collected as fog permeates the fine mesh. Dew forms when the surface area temperature drops relative to the surrounding air. This happens most often in the time between nightfall and sunrise.
The Warka Water will cost around $1,000 to produce and requires no electricity. Vittori says it takes less than an hour to assemble the five modules into a finished tower, making it easily packed and moved as necessary. The practical goal is for the WarkaWater to become an efficient round-the-clock water production machine. With fabric canopies that stretch out like a peplum skirt, the towers could be a place where people gather to socialize and seek shelter from the sun, just as they would beneath a leafy Warka tree.
