KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

PROJECT PROPOSAL ON

ATMOSPHERIC WATER HARVESTING FOR THE RURAL AREAS OF NEPAL

Submitted by:

Parash Jung Karki (41101)

Bikash Sharrf (41111)

i
 Date: 28-11-2019

To
The Project Supervisor,
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Kathmandu University

SUBJECT: Cover Letter for proposal approval

Dear Sir,

Submitted for your review is our proposal entitled “ATMOSPHERIC WATER HARVESTING

FOR THE RURAL AREAS OF NEPAL”. The proposal is submitted as the requirement of

course entitled Engineering Project. Within this document you will find the basic introductions,

objectives, literature review and expected outcome from the proposed work (Listed in detail in the

table of content section).

We hope for your keen review and future assistance in this work along with the approval.

Sincerely,
Parash Jung Karki (41101)
Bikash Sharrf (41111)

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 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL

ATMOSPHERIC WATER HARVESTING FOR THE RURAL AREAS OF NEPAL

BY:

Parash Jung Karki (41101)

Bikash Sharrf (41111)

This is to certify that I have examined the above project and have found that it is complete and
satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the final evaluation committee
have been made.

____________________________________________________
Dr. Daniel Tuladhar
Project Supervisor

____________________________________________________
Mr. Chiranjeevi Mahat
Project Supervisor

28th November, 2019

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................v

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................1
1.1 Background .......................................................................................................................1
1.2 Objectives .........................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2 LITERAURE REVIEW .........................................................................................3
2.1 Fog Nets ............................................................................................................................4
2.1.1 Approach and Methodology ........................................................................................5
2.1.2 Advantages .................................................................................................................6
2.1.3 Disadvantages .............................................................................................................7
2.2 Warka-water Tower ...........................................................................................................7
2.3.1 Construction, Operation and Maintenance ................................................................. 10
2.4 Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) ............................................................................. 11
2.5 Adsorption-based Atmospheric Water Harvesting ........................................................... 12
2.6 Wind-powered AWH (Water-Seer).................................................................................. 14
CHAPTER 3 GANTT CHART ................................................................................................. 15
CHAPTER 4 EXPECTED OUTCOMES .................................................................................. 16
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 17

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Comparative drop sizes of drizzle and fog [3] ................................................................5

Figure 2 Actual SFC unit [3] .......................................................................................................6
Figure 3 Conceptual design of Warka-water [5] ..........................................................................8
Figure 4 Warka-water tower [5] ..................................................................................................8
Figure 5 Dew Collecting Greenhouse [6]................................................................................... 10
Figure 6 Cooling Condensation Process [7] ............................................................................... 11
Figure 7 Working principle of adsorption-based AWH [8] ........................................................ 13
Figure 8 Water-Seer [9]............................................................................................................. 14

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AWH Atmospheric Water Harvesting..................................................................................4
DWSS Department of Water Supply and Sewerage ..............................................................1
FSI Falkenmark Stress Indicator ......................................................................................3
LFC Long Fog Collector...................................................................................................6
MOF Metal Organic Framework...................................................................................... 13
NEWAH Nepal Water for Health ............................................................................................2
NGO Non-Governmental Organization ..............................................................................2
PWR Per Capita Water Resource .......................................................................................3
SFC Standard Fog Collector .............................................................................................6
WHO World Health Organization........................................................................................2

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 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Water is the essence of life, but it depends on what kind of water we are talking about.
Approximately seventy percent of Earth’s surface is submerged in water, and only less than two
percent of that water is drinkable and accessible to us. Sadly, we excessively waste this small
portion on many activities, such as leaving the tap open, flushing toilets, showering for hours, and
water balloon fights. But what happens when we run out of fresh water? Only catastrophes.
Droughts will strike the most fruitful farms, turning them into scorching deserts. Chaos will spread
across countries, and water will be the most valuable resource, more precious than oil. Telling the
world to reduce its consumption of water would be too late at this instance. The only way to find
fresh water at that point would be by extracting it from the atmosphere in a process known as
atmospheric water harvesting.

Atmospheric water harvesting is one of the methods that could save the Earth from running out of
fresh water in the future. This new technology is mainly aimed at communities that live in regions
lacking fresh water. It primarily operates on the existence of humidity. It involves the use of
condensing tools that change the temperature of the humid air in the atmosphere. Once the
humidity reaches this tool, there is a temperature drop to an extent that condenses the air, changing
its state from a gas to a liquid. Then, the fresh water is collected in uncontaminated containers.
When the process is done, the water is then used for several activities, such as drinking, watering
crops, and cleaning [1].

1.1 Background
Of all the earth’s resources, water is the most fundamental to life. Being one of the world’s poorest
countries, Nepal obviously suffers many setbacks in developing the infrastructures. One of the
basic needs is the safe drinking water facility. By the end of Ninth Plan (1997-2002), only 71.6%
of the total population (23.1 million: National Census 2001) had access to safe drinking water and
only 20% have had sanitation facilities. The country had planned to provide 100% of the
population with safe drinking water facilities by the end of 2017. Department of Water Supply and
Sewerage (DWSS), being the lead agency among other sector stakeholders, shared the formidable
challenge to achieve the national goal. DWSS has already completed over 5000 water supply
schemes and about 1000 ongoing schemes that mostly includes surface water gravity flow systems

1
and ground water systems, but few rainwater collection systems. However, national NGO Nepal
Water for Health (NEWAH) and the local communities have successfully implemented two
pioneering fog water collection systems for drinking water. It seems impossible that without
harnessing every possible source, the full water supply coverage could not be attained. Hence, it
enforces to make exploitation of every possible technology and adopt integrated water resources
approach in sectoral planning. Fog and rain water has been used for irrigation, horticulture,
floriculture, drinking, and ground water recharging etc.

Increasing population has put tremendous pressure on the natural resources. Depleting water
sources, deforestation, ever increasing water demand, source disputes and increasing cost of water
has urged to explore new sources of water and adoption of indigenous technologies. About 12
million people live in the hilly regions (Statistical Pocket Book Nepal 2002) where other
conventional water sources like spring, stream and ground water are inadequate and not available
at right places. Changes in climate over few decades have demonstrated that the area is becoming
arid and the rain occurrence has been erratic. People have to fetch water from far distances that
usually cost them more than two hours a day. Traveling was very difficult because of steep slopes.
Plagued by this problem, some villagers had even hired strong men to carry a can of 15 liters of
water for US$ 0.5. For a single day they had to spend US$ 1.50. Such hardships initiated the
endeavor to harness other atmospheric sources like fog and rainwater since it could be collected
right at their house premises.

Recent experiments with fog and rainwater harvesting technologies indicate that it is a potential
source for drinking water at places where rain and persistent moving fog prevails. Therefore, a
first ever research study (UNICEF and WHO Offices, Nepal provided the financial support) was
initiated at a fog collection site in Dhankuta district of Nepal. The study site is located at an
elevation of 1980 m from mean sea level, and co-ordinates of N 26o42’ W 87o24’. It lies on a ridge
top frequently covered with advected orographic clouds [2]. The average annual rainfall was 1492
mm in 2000, and the temperature ranged between 50C to 300C. Humidity varied between 57% in
March to 93% in October. There is near persistent north east light breeze with speed up to 4 in
Beaufort scale. Sometimes storms also hit this area during March [3].

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1.2 Objectives
The main objective of this project is to perform research on the best possible and efficient methods
that can be installed on the rural areas of Nepal to solve the crisis of drinking water.

The specific objectives are:

 To study the current drinking water supply status in the rural and remote areas of Nepal
 To conduct essential measurements on the presence of the humidity, temperature,
atmospheric pressure and dew factors on the specified locations
 To recommend the best alternatives through the help of performance evaluation for
harvesting the atmospheric water

CHAPTER 2 LITERAURE REVIEW

Over the 20th century and into the 21st century, the global population has increased by 300%,
while water consumption has increased by 600%. Freshwater is becoming a scarce commodity as
climate change, man-made pollutants entering the water system, and over-withdrawal of
existing aquifers place enormous strain on freshwater supplies. The distribution of freshwater
around the globe is highly uneven, leading to regional shortages or excesses of water resources.
The most commonly used index to determine magnitude of regional water resources is the
Falkenmark Stress Indicator (FSI), which classifies a country in different categories of water
shortage based on per capita liquid water resource availability (PWR). Based on this index, the
United Nations has predicted that 48 countries will experience water stress or scarcity by 2025.
Four billion people in the world face at least one month of water scarcity every year. The water
crisis has or will soon turn into food crisis in many areas of the world. To avert the looming water-
food crisis, certain measures should be adopted, including, but not limited to water conservation,
reducing pollutants entering the water system, upgrading current infrastructure and improving
fresh water generation technologies.

With an estimated 12,800 trillion liters of renewable water available in the

atmosphere, atmospheric water harvesting has the potential to be a viable solution to address some
of the global needs for freshwater, especially in locations where even saline and/or brackish

3
water is not available. Combining these facts and considering the challenges and shortcomings of
existing centralized water provision and delivery systems, the idea of decentralized atmospheric
water harvesting (AWH) systems has emerged and followed by a number of researchers and
manufacturers during the last few decades. A conventional AWH operates using vapor
compression refrigeration (VCR) unit to condensate water from ambient air by cooling it below
its dew point temperature. There is a number of claims on the performance and capabilities of the
commercially available AWH. However, the literature lacks a critical and independent
investigation into realistic performance, functionality, and limitations of such AWH systems [4].

2.1 Fog Nets

There are several ways to harvest water from the atmosphere. One of the most effective means
known is the use of fog nets. This method is composed of net-like fog fences hung on poles in
humid locations, pipes to transport the dripping water, and tanks to store fresh water. According
to Gaia-Discovery, the size of the fog fences will vary, depending on “the lay of the land, space
available, and the quantity of water needed.” Onita Basu, Associate Professor in Environmental
Engineering at Carleton University, has recently been on a trip to Tanzania to test atmospheric
water harvesting using fog nets. She explains that the fog nets depend on a temperature drop to
change humidity into a liquid phase, and describes how the fog net operates to harvest and collect
fresh water from moisture.

“When the humidity hits the fog net, because there is a surface, the water goes from the vapor
phase to the liquid phase. As soon as it goes to the liquid phase, it just starts to drip down the fog
net. There’s a catchment trough. The water drips down the fog net into the catchment trough, and
then, from there, it goes to a bigger collection basin,” Basu says. There need to be certain
conditions for effective atmospheric water harvesting using fog nets. High wind speeds and an
adequate temperature change are required to harvest enough water from the atmosphere. Basu
emphasizes the importance of high humidity for the process when she says, “[Fog nets] can’t create
water when there’s no water to start with.”Another way to achieve the temperature drop is by
pushing air above the ground to the underground, which has a colder environment that condenses
the air quicker. The cleanliness of the collected fresh water is vital for a successful process. The
sanitation of the water relies on whether the surface it hits is clean or not. The fog nets can be
contaminated by human contact [1].

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2.1.1 Approach and Methodology

This study was based on field level observations made at the project site. The project was jointly
implemented by NEWAH and local communities with technical and financial assistance from
Canada. Booking of hydro-meteorological observations were made from August to September.
However, at least a full one year data was required to make the project design analysis. Therefore,
the fog and rain collection data provided by NEWAH was used for analysis. Water quality
parameters were examined during the site visit, and all the water quality analyses were completed
in the laboratory at Institute of Engineering, Lalitpur, Nepal.

The fog water collection technology is very simple, and demand less operation and maintenance
works. A fog collector screen made up of polypropylene mesh is mounted vertically on two or
more posts. The screen is placed perpendicular to the direction of wind where the tiny water
droplets present in the fog are trapped. Several droplets combine to form a large drop that fall by
gravity into the storage tank through a trough placed horizontally at the bottom of the screen. From
the storage tank, the water is fed into the distribution system. The water drops in the atmosphere
interact with terrain and obstacles in different ways. Due to the presence of water droplets in air,
the horizontal visibility decreases and the formation of cloud takes place. When the base of cloud
lies near or at the surface of ground, then it is called fog. The relative size and fall velocities of
water drops are given in the Figure 1.

Figure 1 Comparative drop sizes of drizzle and fog [3]

Since all of these fall velocities are quite low, the angle of fall of the drops will be influenced by
horizontal winds of even few meters per second. Even the largest rain drops will normally fall at
an angle. In the case of fog droplets, the fall speeds are almost horizontal. Therefore, the
appropriate position of collector for fog droplets is a vertical, or near vertical surface. For initial
assessment of fog water yield, a Standard Fog Collector (SFC) of 1m2 mesh area (Figure 2-1) along

5
with some accessories is used. The SFC is usually kept at site for about a year. When the yield is
promising, the Long Fog Collectors (LFC) is used for actual extraction of water. The width of LFC
is generally 4m and the length varies up to 20m depending upon the space available on the ground.
To capture more water, number of LFC is increased.

Figure 2 Actual SFC unit [3]

Trees can also be good fog collectors depending on their height and leaf structure. The amount of
liquid water present in a cubic meter of cloudy air varies tremendously, from 0.05 g/m3 in wispy
clouds to 3 g/m3 or more in thunderstorms. At coastal fog collection sites, values such as 0.2 g/m3
would be typical2. Fog water was collected through double layered Coresa (Chilean) mesh, and
water was collected through Corrugated Galvanized Iron sheet roof catchments [3].

2.1.2 Advantages
However, the fog and rain water collection system has the following advantages.
 Quick and simple design and construction.
 Modular system that can grow in line with demand or available funds.
 Passive collection system requiring no energy input to operate.
 Cheap and easy to maintain and repair.
 Multiple use of water for domestic, irrigation, livestock, reforestation.
 Water quality is generally good in non-industrial areas, though pH is low.

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2.1.3 Disadvantages
The disadvantages of the fog collection system are mentioned here.
 Technology requires very specific climatic and topographic conditions.
 Yield is difficult to predict.
 Yield is very sensitive with changes in climate.
 It requires full community participation.

2.2 Warka-water Tower

T he W a r k a - w a t e r t o w e r is an unlikely structure to find jutting from the Ethiopian landscape.

At 30 feet tall and 13 feet wide, it’s not half as big as its namesake tree (which can loom 75 feet
tall), but it’s striking nonetheless. The spindly tower, of latticed bamboo lined with orange
polyester mesh, isn’t art-though it does kind of look like it. Rather, the structure is designed to
wring water out of the air, providing a sustainable source of H 2O 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 have
needed water, often with air wells. Often built as high-rising stone structures, air wells gather
moisture from the air and funnel it into a basin for collection. 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. The company has a newer version of the Warka-water and
a Kickstarter campaign to fund field testing in Ethiopia later this year. Based on tests performed
in its Italian lab, the company claims the latest iteration can harvest 13 to 26.4 gallons of water
daily. That’s less than most people flush away each day, but a significant quantity in a country
where some 60 million people lack sufficient potable water.

The new prototype has some key upgrades: The exterior is of bamboo rather than juncus, the top
of the tower has reflective pieces to deter birds, and the structure is larger (13 feet wide, up from
7). This doubled the surface area of its water-resistant polyester mesh netting-the orange material
you see-so more water is collected as fog permeates the fine mesh. MIT has been researching a
similar fog harvesting technique that draws inspiration from the Namib beetle. The process of
collecting rain is straightforward, but capturing dew is slightly more complicated. Dew forms when
the surface area temperature drops relative to the surrounding air. This happens most often in the

7
time between nightfall and sunrise. Vittori is researching materials for the funnel section of the
Warka-water (between mesh netting and the tank) that will lose heat as quickly as possible in order
to optimize the small window of dew-production.

Figure 3 Conceptual design of Warka-water [5]

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 Warka-water to become an efficient round
the clock water production machine. But populating the landscape with alien towers is about more
than just functionality, it’s about architecture. 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 [5].

Figure 4 Warka-water tower [5]

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2.3 Dew Harvesting
Dew harvesting (or dew collection) is simply taking advantage of water vapor in the atmosphere
to harvest clean and potable water through condensation, a passive process that allows water
particles to return to the earth in a pure form. Dew harvesting has been practiced by humanity as
far back as ancient times, in areas where rainfall and groundwater resources are scarce. When there
is any humidity at all in the air and there is a surface that is cool enough to provoke condensation,
dew will condense on that surface until the humidity is gone. Vegetation in desert regions have
developed modifications that allow them to collect their own humidity from the air, for example,
and through efforts of reforestation in desert regions this technology has advanced abundantly
around the world. Dew can bring substantial amount of water when the other resources
(groundwater, rain, fog) are lacking. Rainwater harvesting structures can also be used to collect
dew at night, which condenses on a surface from where water droplets drip into a gutter that goes
to a reservoir. Quantity from dew varies according to location but at times has been shown to
constitute a significant proportion of normal rainfall. Dew collection is a possible supplementary
source of water in arid and semi- arid areas, but has so far not been widely applied and is an area
of further research.

Suitable conditions for harvesting the dew is listed below:

 Large areas of unused land.

 Areas with large diurnal temperature range (at least 12 degrees Celsius from day to night).
 Areas with low winds (winds cause evaporation). It is advised to have an upper limit of 4
m/s at 10m.
 The average wind speeds where dew forms correspond to rather large speed (1-2 m/s),
higher than ones found in continental locations of 0.1 - 0.2 m/s.
 Dew yields are seen to rise when cloud cover diminishes because the radiative cooling
increases.
 The largest dew yields correspond to the highest humidity and the lowest cooling
temperature.
 The condensing material must be adequate (thermally isolated, water resistant, on a slope).

9
Dew harvesting must not be done on the following circumstances:

 On or near poisonous plants

 On plants or objects that are chemically treated or sprayed
 In areas where obvious animal defecation has taken place
 Near roadsides

2.3.1 Construction, Operation and Maintenance

The best time to gather dew is in the early morning before the sun has touched your collection
area. The catchment area needs to be large enough to collect the required amount of water, while
also being practical to where it is collected. Typical collection rates vary according to the site – in
Morocco rates of collection were 18.9 litres/m2/yr (in an area of 215 mm annual rainfall) whereas
in Spain rates increased to a range of 41.5 to 71.1 litres/ m2/yr (in an area of between 246 – 324
mm annual rainfall).

It seems that elevated surfaces collect 14% more water compared to one on the ground. It may also
be helpful to use galvanized roof sheets that can be painted with special Opur paint. This paint
enhances infrared cooling and remain hydrophilic due to photocatalytic reaction with ultraviolet
light. Such a system was created in Morocco where painted sheets were underlain with a 2 cm
thick polystyrene insulation, and the roof pitch was 30 degrees. The system uses radiative cooling
at night. Foil can also be used but is prone to damage. Dew collection can also be used to create a
form of micro irrigation where plastic trays are used to funnel dew to plant roots [6].

Figure 5 Dew Collecting Greenhouse [6]

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2.4 Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG)
An atmospheric water generator is a device that extracts water from humid ambient air. Water
vapor in the air can be extracted by condensation - cooling the air below its dew point, exposing
the air to desiccants, or pressurizing the air. Unlike a dehumidifier, an AWG is designed to render
the water potable. AWGs are useful where pure drinking water is difficult or impossible to obtain,
because there is almost always a small amount of water in the air that can be extracted. The two
primary techniques in use are cooling and desiccants.

Many atmospheric water generators operate in a manner very similar to that of a dehumidifier: air
is passed over a cooled coil, causing water to condense. The rate of water production depends on
the ambient temperature, humidity, the volume of air passing over the coil, and the machine's
capacity to cool the coil. These systems reduce air temperature, which in turn reduces the air's
capacity to carry water vapor. This is the most common technology in use, but when powered by
coal-based electricity it has one of the worst carbon footprints of any water source
(exceeding reverse osmosis seawater desalination by three orders of magnitude) and it demands
more than four times as much water up the supply chain than it delivers to the user.

An alternative available technology uses liquid, or "wet" desiccants such as lithium

chloride or lithium bromide to pull water from the air via hygroscopic processes. A proposed
similar technique combines the use of solid desiccants, such as silica gel and zeolite, with pressure
condensation. Direct drinking quality water generating devices using sun light are also under
development.

Figure 6 Cooling Condensation Process [7]

11
The figure above demonstrate the entire condensation process. In a cooling condensation type
atmospheric water generator, a compressor circulates refrigerant through a condenser and then an
evaporator coil which cools the air surrounding it. This lowers the air temperature to its dew point,
causing water to condense. A controlled-speed fan pushes filtered air over the coil. The resulting
water is then passed into a holding tank with purification and filtration system to help keep the
water pure and reduce the risk posed by viruses and bacteria which may be collected from the
ambient air on the evaporator coil by the condensing water.

The rate at which water can be produced depends on relative humidity and ambient air temperature
and size of the compressor. Atmospheric water generators become more effective as relative
humidity and air temperature increase. As a rule of thumb, cooling condensation atmospheric water
generators do not work efficiently when the temperature falls below 18.3°C (65°F) or the relative
humidity drops below 30%. This means they are relatively inefficient when located inside air-
conditioned offices. The cost-effectiveness of an AWG depends on the capacity of the machine,
local humidity and temperature conditions and the cost to power the unit [7].

2.5 Adsorption-based Atmospheric Water Harvesting

This method is mainly adapted in arid climates where there is severe challenge of water scarcity.
While a substantial amount of water is present in the form of vapour in the atmosphere, harvesting
this water by state-of-the-art dewing technology can be extremely energy intensive and
impractical, particularly when the relative humidity (RH) is low (i.e., below ~40% RH). In
contrast, atmospheric water generators that utilise sorbents enable capture of vapour at low RH
conditions and can be driven by the abundant source of solar-thermal energy with higher
efficiency. Here, we demonstrate an air-cooled sorbent-based atmospheric water harvesting device
using the metal−organic framework (MOF)-801 [Zr6O4(OH)4(fumarate)6] operating in an
exceptionally arid climate (10-40% RH) and sub-zero dew points (Tempe, Arizona, USA)
with a thermal efficiency (solar input to water conversion) of ~14%. We predict that this device
delivered over 0.25 L of water per kg of MOF for a single daily cycle.

12
 Figure 7 Working principle of adsorption-based AWH [8]
The operational principle involves a single daily cycle where adsorption occurs during night-time
at a higher humidity (20–40% RH) and solar-assisted desorption/water production occurs during
day-time at a lower humidity (10–20% RH). The device consists of two key components, an
adsorbent layer (MOF) and an air-cooled condenser in an enclosure. The back side of the MOF
layer is coated black and serves as a solar absorber. During night-time adsorption, the enclosure
side walls are opened and the MOF layer is saturated with vapour from the natural flow of ambient
air and passively cooled with radiation to the sky. During day-time water production, the enclosure
is closed and the solar absorber side is covered with an optically transparent thermal insulator
(OTTI aerogel). The MOF layer is heated by exposure to solar irradiance, causing water release
(desorption). The desorbed water vapour diffuses from the MOF layer to the condenser due to a
concentration gradient. Accumulation of vapour in the enclosure leads to saturation conditions and
consequently, the condensation process occurs at ambient temperature. The heat of condensation
is dissipated to the ambient by a heat sink. The adsorbents need to be selected based on the typically
available ambient RH for water adsorption. MOF-801 was chosen in our study because it exhibits
an adsorption step located around 20% RH and is well-suited for the specific climate tested
(Tempe, AZ, USA). Furthermore, MOF-801 is hydrothermally stable and well-characterised for
water adsorption including having high stability to cycling water in and out of the pores [8].

13
2.6 Wind-powered AWH (Water-Seer)
Water-Seer is a low-technology, low-cost atmospheric water condenser that could help create
water self-sufficiency in communities around the world. A new device developed by VICI-Labs,
in collaboration with UC Berkeley and the National Peace Corps Association, aims to provide a
sustainable source of clean safe water for the millions without a reliable water supply. In the
developed world, where most homes and businesses have ready access to clean water at the turn
of a tap, we don't really have to worry about most waterborne diseases, or dehydration, or the
ability to wash ourselves, our clothes, or our eating utensils, but those worries are still very real
for the millions around the world without a reliable clean water source. The Water-Seer could help
to alleviate some of those water poverty issues. The Water-Seer is relatively simple device,
designed to be operated without an external power input, and without the need for costly chemicals
or maintenance, that can 'pull' moisture from thin air and condense it into water using the
temperature difference between the above-ground turbine and the collection chamber installed six
feet underground. The potable water can then be delivered to the surface for use via a simple pump
and hose, and the device is said to be able to produce up to 11 gallons per day, even in arid regions.

Figure 8 Water-Seer [9]

The above-ground turbine spins in the breeze, turning internal fan blades and sending air down
into a condensation chamber, where the air is naturally cooled by the surrounding earth, which
causes the water vapor to condense into liquid water that flows into a reservoir below [9].

14
 CHAPTER 3 GANTT CHART

Months 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Literature
Review
Proposal
submission
Feasibility
study
Design and
study of
machine
components
Mid-term report
submission and
presentation
Installation of
the project
Data Collection

Data analysis

Final report
Submission and
Presentation

Works completed Works to be completed

15
 CHAPTER 4 EXPECTED OUTCOMES

 The current status of drinking water supply in the remote areas of Nepal can be studied.
 The study of atmospheric parameters including relative humidity, temperature,
atmospheric pressure, dew factors, etc. existing in those areas helps to recommend the best
alternatives of water harvesting techniques.
 The possible installation of the project in those remote areas can solve the water scarcity
problem and ease their livelihood.

16
 REFERENCES

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pheric-water-harvesting-our-one-environmental-chance-against-water-crisis. [Accessed
2019].

2 A. Cruzart, "Design, Construction and Operation System of a Fog water Collector," Second
International Conference on Fog and Fog Collection, Canada, 1998.

3 M. B. Karkee, "HARVESTING OF ATMOSPHERIC WATER: A Promising Low-cost

Technology," Ninth International Water Technology Conference, Egypt, 2005.

4 F. Bagheri, "Performance Investigation of Atmospheric Water Harvesting Systems," Water

Resources and Industry, vol. 20, pp. 23-28, 2018.

5 L. Stinson, "A Bamboo Tower That Produces Water From Air," 2018.

6 M.Treacy,"Wikiversity,"11-09,2016.[Online].Available:
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