Warka Water

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The Warka Water project is based on the Warka Tower, the ingenious invention of an Italian designer Arturo Vittori. The Warka Tower is designed to harvest water from the atmosphere (rain, fog, dew) providing an alternative water source for rural populations that face challenges accessing drinkable water. It is a passive structure functioning only by natural phenomena such as gravity, condensation, and evaporation. Easy to maintain it is operated autonomously by the villagers.

“Visiting small isolated communities on the high plateau in the north-eastern region of Ethiopia, I witnessed this dramatic reality: the lack of drinking water. The villagers live in a beautiful natural environment, but often without running water, electricity or toilets. To help improve this dramatic situation, I have made it my mission to find solutions and help these people”

Arturo Vittori, founder of WarkaWater

TED talk by Arturo Vittori about Warka Water

The project provides for the construction of 10 WarkaTower, a tower about ten meters high, which makes it possible to harvest the water available in the humidity of the air, the rain and the dew in territories that do not have access to a structured water network. The tower is intended to be owned and operated by the villagers and also creates a social gathering space for the community, where people can meet in the shade. The tower is capable of collecting 100L of drinking water per day, on average, taking into account weather conditions. Water is filtered and stored to be available for toilets, cooking, cultivation, and drinking.

Access to drinking water is a permanent challenge for populations in water-stressed countries. According to the United Nations, 663 million people worldwide do not have access to improved sources of drinking water, and every day 1,000 children die from diseases that can be easily prevented by improving sanitation and hygiene conditions. Industrial solutions for the treatment of polluted water remain expensive and do not allow many populations in developing countries to have access to safe water.

The Warka Tower was the first project the Shining Hope Foundation launched working with some of these isolated communities. Very early on, we realised that beyond the lack of drinking water, there were other important problems to solve. Other important projects such as WSolar, WGarden, WSanitation, WDrone, WHouse, WFilter & Distribution, and Culture a Porter have evolved and are under development. This year, we found a way to send all the Pygmy children from Warka Village to school.

The name of the project “Warka” comes from the Warka tree, which is a giant, wild fig tree native to Ethiopia. Like the tree, the Warka tower is an important cornerstone for the local community. It is part of the local culture and ecosystem by providing fruit, shade and a place to gather.
In recent years, the system has been finding places to set up in Africa and Asia. The Cameroon programme is currently in the development and extension phase, with the support of Shining Hope in particular.