101-solutions.org

SOLUTION CATEGORIES

KEYWORDS

ALL

Seawater greenhouses

The solution is simple, tried and tested, inexpensive and makes it possible to cultivate crops all-year-round in some of the world’s hottest places.  Seawater greenhouses enable the cultivation of crops without adding fresh water. Sea water is evaporated on so-called evaporation mats, or wet cardboard walls, thus removing the salt at the same time as the air becomes damp, and as much as 15 degrees cooler than in the hot desert sun.

The cool, damp conditions in the greenhouse mean that the crops manage with very little water. The surplus condensed fresh water can be used for watering crops, or for other purposes. This simple process, carried out in the seawater greenhouses, mimics nature’s own water cycle in which seawater is heated up by the sun, evaporates, and forms clouds before returning to the earth in the form of rain.