How to Harvest Water 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. In order to collect water from the air by means of condensation two fog collectors were built in Kañuma, located in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Environmental conditions, such as wind direction and velocity, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, were calculated using a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station. The formal Quasi-Experimental Research was implemented, determining the cause-effect relation of quantity of water collected and environmental conditions in the lapse of 21 days. Daily controls were performed, analyzing the volume of harvested water regarding evapotranspiration and the psychrometric constant. Our results show that it has been 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.