How can water be harvested from the air? The evidence from Bolivia

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze how to harvest water from the air in Bolivia. To collect water from the air by condensation two fog collectors were built in Kañuma, located in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. The environmental conditions, such as wind direction and velocity, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure, were calculated using a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station. Formal quasi-experimental research was implemented to determine the cause-effect relationship of the quantity of water collected and the environmental conditions over 21 days. Daily controls were performed, analyzing the volume of harvested water regarding evapotranspiration and the psychrometric constant. Our results show that it was possible to harvest almost 89 ml/day/m2 in both models in just 21 days of experimentation. In addition, we want to shed light on sustainable development and public policy implementation on water collection alternatives, especially for high and mountainous areas, where we can locate some of the poorest communities in Bolivia.