Water from Thin Air

In regions too arid for rainfall, new technologies pull water directly from air. The atmosphere holds roughly 13,000 cubic kilometers of water vapor — about six times the volume of all the world's rivers combined.

Fog nets are the simplest approach: mesh panels on hillsides catch droplets from passing fog and channel them into tanks. Communities in Chile, Morocco, and Ethiopia rely on them where no other source exists.

More advanced systems use metal-organic frameworks — materials that soak up moisture at night and release it when warmed by the sun, pulling liters of water daily from desert air with humidity as low as 20 percent.