10. Awareness of Atmospheric Water Harvesting Technology in a Community: Case Study of Pretoria North in South Africa

There is limited awareness about atmospheric water (AW) and its harvesting for drinking purposes in South Africa and Sub-Sahara African countries at large, this trend is mainly characterized by the shortage of articles related to this topic from this region. Most of the referenced papers from search engines are either from Northern Africa or from other continents. The article aims to create awareness within the community of Pretoria North, Gauteng Province in South Africa regarding atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) as an alternative source to the conventional potable water supply. AWH could be crucial, specifically during times of potable water supply challenges in the country; an assessment of awareness has been carried out to postulate on the acceptability of such alternative. A set of questions was formulated by the researcher to address the aim as well as consent form declarations for the participant to voluntarily engage on the survey. The consent form explained the criteria of no race, no identity concept that has no prejudice meaning, the participant could opt to pull out from the survey at any given time. The engagement yielded a positive outcome as 93% of the total questionnaires were answered, of these 27% did not address the randomization validity. The overall results did give a turnaround of 66% valid surveys with question (7) and (9) scoring the highest equal score on “strongly agree”. The outcome of the data collected has proven that most of the people interviewed (60% of the participants) believe that water can be harvested from air, fog and rain for drinking purposes which relates to the fact that they are likely to accept AWH technologies. Similarly, 60% of participants strongly agree that drinking water quality is more important than the cost to acquire such water. The conclusion therefore provides answer to the aim established by the researcher consisting mainly to assess the acceptability of AWH as an alternative source of water. These findings, made available, will require the necessary actions by the relevant authorities to ensure that the community is equipped with the necessary tools to face the challenges similar to those encountered during the drought period a few years ago.