Tech | March 18, 2010 | 13 comments

Water Harvesting Skyscrapers to Solve Sudan's Drought

source: http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/18/the-watertower-aims-to-solve-sudans-drought/

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Darfur has long been plagued by significant droughts, however in 2007 scientists at Boston University discovered the region has one of the biggest underwater lakes in the world. Putting these two facts together, Polish firm H3AR designed an incredible water-harvesting skyscraper that would draw h2o from underground and create an artificial lake!

Darfur’s underground lake covers a distance of 19,110 square miles and has the potential to restore peace to a region ravaged by drought, however providing access to all that water has proven difficult. H3AR’s Watertower aims to tap this resource through good design and effective water management. The skyscraper would work as a hospital, a school, a food storage center, and most importantly, a water storage center.


http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/18/the-watertower-aims-to-solve-sudans-drought/
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13 comments // Water Harvesting Skyscrapers to Solve Sudan's Drought

  • CaptDoug
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  

    • i like the idea of the towers being made of local mud brick but how strong is mud brick? there's gonna be a huge weight load when its full of water. i wouldn't want to stand in it's shade no matter how hot it got.

    • 1 year ago
  • Ari_Liston
  • GreenNewEarth
  • Maitereya
    • 0
      Maitereya  

    • I hate to be a buzz kill. But who is going to put money up for these things? They look expensive. More so than aids drugs that the region already doesn't get.

    • 1 year ago
  • IngloriousBitch
    • 0
      IngloriousBitch [removed]  

    • You know what, let the Polish have a freakin victory.
      Hopefully it catches rain at the top that is somehow filtered and used too.
      If you're doing something better, bring it up won't ya?

    • 1 year ago
  • suzane
  • observer2121
  • andresm89
    • 0
      andresm89  

    • first of all yeah this is brilliant. digging for underground water creates a problem because when the water is brought up it starts interacting with the new environment in the surface and in a dry place such darfur, a lot of water is going to evaporate and travel to a different place of the globe. If more water is coming out of the underground lake than the one is coming in (through agriculture) it will create a hole inside the earth which can cause the surface to sink. How does this design solve this problem?

    • 1 year ago
  • CaptB
    • 0
      CaptB  

    • That is brilliant. I agree with Varex_Sythe. What impact will the lack of the reservoir have on the environment?

    • 1 year ago
  • ozoneocean
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  

    • I will agree that this is a brilliant feat of engineering and creativity, but I wonder what will happen if and/or when those underground lakes start to dry up.

    • 1 year ago
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