Water Tower That Pulls Water From the Air Wins World Design Impact Prize

Every other year, the World Design Impact Prize is awarded to a project that uses design to tackle a pressing and widely felt problem. The most recent recipient, as reported by Inhabitat, is a water tower built to extract drinking water straight from the air.

Warka Water is the brainchild of Italian industrial designer Arturo Vittori. His design consists of a bamboo frame holding up a mesh netting that's been especially built to harvest rain, fog, and dew droplets from the air. The tower is made from materials found locally, and it's simple enough for a team of six to put it together in less than a week. Vitorri made his first prototype in 2012, and his latest iteration is capable of collecting up to 100 liters of drinking water in a single day.

Since May of last year, Warka Water's 3.2 prototype has provided water to villagers of the Dorze Community in Ethiopia, a country where less than half the population has access to a clean water source. They're now looking to expand to more parts of the world and are aiming to achieve mass production by 2019. You can check out images of the award-winning design below.

Images courtesy of Warka Water.

[h/t Inhabitat]