Water covers nearly 71% of the Earth’s surface. However, only 2.8 percent of this is potable fresh water. All forms of life literally thrive on this natural resource – indeed, it could not survive otherwise. Scientists now know that such a small quantity of freshwater will not be available for too long. While a third of the Earth’s surface is comprised of water, mankind needs to really start worrying about an alternate supply of drinking water for its future generations. Most of the major water bodies have been polluted by using them as garbage bins for all our waste products. Indeed, one can almost visualize a day in the near future, when a man may kill another – only to get a drink of water.

An oft-overlooked and untapped source of pure water surrounds us all the time. This invisible, huge source of pure water is our atmosphere, contains 4,000 cubic miles of water that we hadn’t considered till recent years as a viable source of pure drinking water. It not only has the potential of being the biggest source of pure drinking water, it is also renewable – providing a cost-effective way to create water from air.

A major chunk of the world’s population is concentrated in areas where the air has enough moisture to provide pure drinking water to everyone. Extracting water from air may be the solution for all water supply problems – in the poorest of countries, as well as the ones which are not well endowed with freshwater sources. This technology that converts air to water has proved a boon for peacekeeping forces that have to overcome great difficulties in obtaining supplies during operations in underdeveloped nations, and disaster relief teams as well. Soon after an earthquake, the major concern of the disaster relief teams is to combat fast spreading water-related diseases like dysentery. Such occasions call for a technology that can create pure drinking water from air.

Affordable versions of this technology are available for both residential and commercial needs. It really makes good business sense to extract pure drinking water from air, since the costs are half that of bottled water, and can be used in cruise ships, hospitals, public buildings and offices. It consumes little energy and maximizes production of pure water. Agricultural fields that use the drip irrigation system could apply this process of extracting water from air very easily.

Some other benefits of this system, apart from producing pure drinking water, include avoiding the usage of non bio degradable plastic for bottled water as well as reducing transportation costs.

Another immediate advantage of obtaining water from air is that we avoid the toxic wastes from contaminated groundwater. It is hardly possible to find any source of freshwater that does not contain traces of toxic chemicals. Even the chlorine that is used to purify water and remove disease-causing microbes is harmful to us. One such water purification system, that uses this technology, is Dewpointe. It also acts as a water dispenser with a feature that lets you adjust the cold water temperature and serves instant hot water.