Magic box at Kollam

Water is harvested from air by a water-capturing device

Fisheries MinisterJ. Mercykutty Amma tastes a glass of water sourced from air through a device that she formally launched at the Kollam Corporation office on Thursday.

Thin air has become a drinking water source at the headquarters of the Kollam City Corporation.

Water is harvested from air by a water-capturing device that works on the simple refrigeration technique of condensing the humidity in the atmosphere. The water thus collected is passed through various filters to purify it, resulting in clean drinking water.

Fisheries Minister J. Mercykutty Amma drank a glass of water from this source after formally launching it at the civic body headquarters on Thursday evening.

The occasion was the first instance of this technology applied in Kerala.

Mayor V. Rajendrababu said since the technology was climate dependent, the output of the device would rise with an increase in atmospheric humidity.

The device costing about ₹2.5 lakh was installed free of charge at the civic headquarters by the Mumbai-based manufacturer Watermaker.

Sethu Sundarlal, the distributor of the device for Kerala, said the device would generate 120 litre of water a day in the Kerala climate. The cost came to only ₹2 a litre. The device meets the World Health Organization and IS 10500 specifications, he said.