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  The January 2021 issue of the Caribbean Agro-climatic Bulletin of the CariSAM presented these interesting maps. Highlights: (1) Dry spells are probable for The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Cuba. (2) Long-term drought may occur in Grand Cayman and St. Kitts. For details, visit https://rcc.cimh.edu.bb/carisam-bulletin-vol-4-issue-8-january-2021/
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 This is Fig. 4 from Hunt and others (2020) A recent article about Seawater Air-Conditioning (SWAC) contains knowledge applicable to the design of the WaterProducer-Greenhouse™.
The citation for the article is: Hunt, J.D., Zakeri, B., Nascimento, A. et al. High velocity seawater air-conditioning with thermal energy storage and its operation with intermittent renewable energies. Energy Efficiency 13, 1825–1840 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-020-09905-0 Clicking on this line will take you to the full text of this open source article.  Please join us for this webinar by registering at http://bit.ly/SGC-Oct20 where you will find additional information.
The WaterProducer-Greenhouse™ design is intended for tropical small islands, many of which are small island developing states. Here is a link to the official United Nations list of small island developing states.  Click on image to visit the UN web page about small island developing states Because the WaterProducer Greenhouse Project is an appropriate technology for small island developing states, this new series by DEVEX is quite relevant for visitors to this site. I encourage you to visit this link: https://pages.devex.com/turningthetide.html?utm_medium=cta&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=turning_the_tide
A recent online article by Dr. Fernando Pérez Monteagudo (Professor at the Centre for Hydraulic Research, Havana, Cuba) in Water & Wastewater International explained how desalinated water supplements the rainwater fed drinking-water system on Grand Turk.
Sustainability must be the goal of water resources management in small islands, and Grand Turk, the capital of Turks and Caicos Islands, is carefully preserving its complex water supply system fed mainly by rainwater and supplemented by desalination. Read more... I have the privilege of being accepted as one of the presenters during the Technical Sessions at the 23rd Annual Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) Conference and Exhibition scheduled for October 6-10, 2014 at Atlantis Resorts on Paradise Island, Bahamas. Here is the Abstract of my paper:
Regional droughts in the Caribbean are common. Water managers seeking solutions to water scarcity are often unfamiliar with the option of using water-from-air technology. Maps of the specific humidity composite mean for Junes and Decembers during the ten-year period 2004–2013 quantify the water-from-air resource demonstrating it is suitable for operation of water-from-air systems in Caribbean countries. Quantitative investigations by the author found droughts and long-term climate change do not appear to affect the magnitude of the Caribbean region’s water-from-air resource. Case studies include one for a proposed water-from-air commercial greenhouse on Grand Turk. Another case is about the experience of commissioning a 2500 L/d water-from-air machine in Belize City. Lessons learned from the case studies are outlined.  Click image for entire article from TCWNO I discovered that Turks and Caicos Weekly News Online featured an article (August 12, 2011) about our project participant Nicholas Turner.
The opening paragraphs from the article. TCI’S long neglected agricultural sector is in for a major boost thanks to a forthcoming national training centre to educate a new generation of farmers. North Caicos’ listless government farm is to be transformed into a venue to research the best way to grow crops – with the emphasis on organic produce. Aspiring farmers will be given plots of land on the vast 160-acre site for a peppercorn rent. They will then receive training from farm staff on the best techniques on everything from irrigation to fertiliser. It’s just part of plans unveiled by new agriculture director Nicholas Turner who hopes the Islands will eventually yield enough fruit, veg, dairy products and meat, to feed the entire nation. Updates: March 25, 2013--http://tcweeklynews.com/agriculture-coop-in-planning-stages-p3690-127.htm July 7, 2013--http://tcweeklynews.com/agriculture-department-still-without-director-p4111-1.htm Jan 27, 2014--http://tcweeklynews.com/agriculture-projects-for-provo-and-middle-caicos-being-reviewed-p4725-1.htm  Apparently, I should not be so frustrated that the WaterProducer-Greenhouse™ project has not yet built its first installation! New technologies have often taken about two decades to become mainstream. Steven Johnson gave several examples in his interesting book (published 2010) titled, Where good ideas come from: the natural history of innovation. It takes typically about ten years to construct the "platform" and another ten years for widespread adoption (the 10/10 rule).
I am experiencing this (agonizingly) with the WaterProducer-Greenhouse™ Project. The two year viability study, completed in 2003 resulted in a unique knowledge base (the reports to CIDA) that could be marketed to interested people. Lots of mild interest. Many hours are spent on personal networking and development of this information-rich website. Now, more than ten self-funded years later, I am hopeful that there exist some early adopters with the imagination and guts to exploit this innovative technically and commercially viable platform (along with our team's expertise) for improving water and food security for the people living on and visiting tropical small islands. Water-scarcity remains one of the global "key societal challenges" reminds an editorial in the January 2, 2014 issue of Nature. In the same issue, Colin Macilwain listed examples of mounting societal problems in this order: water, food, health, energy, and climate change. The WaterProducer-Greenhouse™ addresses the first two problems. |
Water + Food™ Blog
 AuthorRoland Wahlgren is a Physical Geographer. He was scientific and technical consultant to the WaterProducer-Greenhouse™ Project while it was "live" as a CIDA-supported Viability Study during 2001-2003. 
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