Fresh water

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Reverse Osmosis

In the boating world, reverse osmosis machines are also called "watermakers".

Rainwater Harvesting

Rain is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet, most of it over the ocean (see wikipedia).

If you ever lived in a tropical country, you quickly learn to espect a daily rain fall between 5 and 6 o'clock of about half an hour. And collecting rain fall is the easy. With a permeable soil, you even have nothing to do.

Post on collecting rain.

Dehumidification

The Watermill

Ghyben-Herzberg

This is far from being a joke.

Ghyben-Herzberg lens

Human can survive about anywhere provided there is enough fresh water. Moreover, fresh water is lighter than sea water.

So the best place to live is on top of a mass of porous materiel saturated of fresh water (like a kitchen sponge). This exists in any natural island, known as the Ghyben-Herzberg lens.

The water may be collected from rain. If the island is large and deep enough (40 times deeper that its height), it will be naturally protected against salt water intrusion. Otherwise, some watertight barrier is needed.

See more explanation at geography.about.com

Links

• Wikipedia article on desalination
• Wikipedia article on Reverse Osmosis
• Wikipedia article on Watermakers
• Wikipedia article on solar desalination
• Wikipedia article on Solar Still
• Wikipedia article on Rainwater Harvesting
• The Hurricane Tower "Fresh Water generation through simulation of natures hurricanes".
• Sea Solar Power
• Seawater Greenhouse

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