As much as a third of the world's population does not have access to clean drinking water, according to some estimates, and half of the population could live in water-stressed areas by 2025. Finding a solution to this problem could save and improve lives for millions of people, and it is a high priority among scientists and engineers around the globe.
According to certain estimates, one-third of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking water and half of the population could end up living in water-stressed conditions by 2025.
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New Type of Soil Waters Plants by Itself
A new type of soil can pull water from the air and distribute it to plants, researchers report.
The self-watering soil could potentially expand the map of farmable land around the globe to previously inhospitable places and reduce water use in agriculture at a time of growing droughts.
As reported in
ACS Materials Letters, the team’s atmospheric water irrigation system uses super-moisture-absorbent gels to capture water from the air. When the soil is heated to a certain temperature, the gels release the water, making it available to plants. When the soil distributes water, some of it goes back into the air, increasing humidity and making it easier to continue the harvesting cycle.