There’s a very interesting project being launched in Qatar this month — sea water is collected by evaporators and used to create an oasis in the middle of a desert: The ultimate aim of the Sahara Forest Project is to return vast areas of desert back to life, providing food, water and clean energy...
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Just read a post from DRIPtech — they want a product designer who can help them design “affordable irrigation technologies for small-plot farmers in developing countries”! Well, that’s us! Check out the post: Job Posting: Director of Product Design
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There’s an interesting blog post about water pumps. There needs to be a cheap and easy solution for people to pump water out of the ground. Here’s the article: BUILDING A BETTER MOUSETRAP IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
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There’s an interesting report on the use of trees in agriculture — how intermixing the trees among the crop fields actually produces higher yields. Part of the problem discussed in the report is poor water management among rural farmers. Here’s quote: “In Africa, it is generally agreed that poor soil management — along with...
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Domingos is a farmer living in the highlands of Serra Malagueta. He says that they get 1000 liters per day from one of his fog nets! He grows potatoes, many different varieties, like we did. Check out the cool use of old beer bottles—he recycles them to help build his structures for farming. The...
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We found another design solution for dew collection: WATERBOXX. Groasis waterboxx was elected Popular Science’s 2010 Best Innovation of the Year. Waterboxx was invented by Pieter Hoff. His ideas was to help trees grow in dry environments and replant the desert. The idea is to catch rain water and dew and store it inside...
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Here’s why D.R.I.P.S. can make a difference: time spent fetching and carrying water on their heads can be spent on education, family, community, work, or simply relaxing. Like water, time is a precious resource that shouldn’t be wasted! Wouldn’t it be great if they could use their heads for something else?
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Here’s an illustration of how D.R.I.P.S. would be used to farm potatoes, using evapotranspiration—by collecting dew and delivering it to the plants’ root system. This is our low energy passive irrigation system in scarce water environment.
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We are doing a lot of research in these last few days. We came across a dew irrigation system that had a lot of similarity to our D.R.I.P.S. project. It is a system designed by an Israeli company Tal-Ya. Here are few photos of their product (notice the irrigation lines): At first it was...
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EDF Evaluation Question: “Please describe shortly below how your project contributes to change energy together for better living (sustainable behavior).” Answer: I think the question is asking us to evaluate our project, Deep Root Irrigation and Precipitation System, in terms of its impact on the communities where it will be deployed. We believe there...
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In September 2005 issue of Scientific American Journal, there was an article: “The Big Potential of Small Farms” by Paul Polak (August 22, 2005). Paul Polak started IDE—International Development Enterprises—in 1981 to come up with good solutions to water problems. The article describes IDE’s work and the problems they are trying to solve. There’s...
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We’ve got an invitation to The Energy Lab — EDF’s new pavilion in France, featuring the winning designs from the EDF Sustainable Design Challenge....
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Our project and its video was just posted on The Water Channel! Here’s a description of what they do: TheWaterChannel was launched at the...
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So now we have three prototypes: two from India and one locally-produced. They are very different. But the latest version is what we are...
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We just got our first glimpse of DRIPS from India — these were produced in India and are being shipped to us now. Can’t...
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This year (2011), we are still focusing on food. We want to know the true cost of food — its price; the distance it...
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