'Stars Wars' Inspired Device Converts Air to Water, Helps Indians During Severe Drought

Indian locals designed a device that helped them address the water shortage.

Water Device Inspired By 'Star Wars'

In 2016, a severe drought hit the Indian city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut. The residents, including student Swapnil Shrivastav, only had limited access to water everyday. They only received two buckets of water each day and this prompted Shrivastav, who had been interested in water scarcity, to explore possible solutions.

"One element of inspiration was from 'Star Wars' where there's an air to water device. I thought why don't we give it a try? It was more of a curiosity project," Shrivastav said.

A few years later, in 2019, Shrivastav, Govinda Balaji, and Venkatesh Raja founded the Bangalore-based startup Uravu Labs. Their technology uses atmospheric water generators, which draw moisture from the air and contain a liquid desiccant, to turn air into water.

They heat the desiccant to 65 degrees Celsius using solar energy or renewable electricity to release the moisture, which can subsequently condense into drinking water. The entire process takes roughly 12 hours, according to Shrivastav. Currently, each unit generates roughly 2,000 liters of potable water. Even though his goal was to provide drinking water to areas with water scarcity, he claims it wasn't financially feasible.

Shrivastav said they realized that the technology still requires time to scale up and become more affordable, or else funding would be necessary. Unfortunately, they couldn't find a sponsor in India. Currently, 40 clients in the hospitality sector purchase water from them, and those clients use it to supply drinking water to their patrons.

Shrivastav added that they experimented with CSR (corporate social responsibility) and nonprofit organizations. However, many businesses avoid technology. They reportedly believed technology would not succeed. Thus, the group decided to only offer the water to those willing to pay them and it was a sustainability driver for them as they had to switch to applications for commercial usage.

ALSO READ: Water Shortage: Increased Demand Due to Population Growth, Frequent Extreme Weather Threaten Supply [Study]

What Is Water Shortage?

Water scarcity or water shortages have been experienced worldwide. This could happen for various reasons, including climate change, mismanagement of usage or overconsumption.

Drought is one of the main causes of water scarcity. A natural phenomenon known as drought occurs when dry conditions and a lack of precipitation, such as rain, snow, or sleet, persist over a given area for an extended period.

Although rainfall varies naturally throughout the year and across different regions, rising global temperatures and climate change are changing rainfall patterns, which affect the distribution and quality of the world's water resources. Increased temperatures cause soil moisture to evaporate more quickly, and frequent and intense heat waves worsen drought conditions and lead to a water shortage.

A previous study analyzed a large amount of data on sectoral water usage over the last 30 years at the international, national, and municipal levels. The analysis shows that during the past three decades, extreme events have had a major impact on patterns of water usage. Nevertheless, the specific repercussions have varied greatly by industry and region globally. Furthermore, heatwaves and drought-heatwave occurrences have a greater overall impact on water demand than droughts alone.