by utilizing both the water that falls onsite and the water that runs off from surrounding areas, urban rain gardens in dc, planted with drought tolerant plants, filter rainwater and runoff water during storms. once rainwater hits the pavement it will travel to a storm drain, dragging anything in its path down the drain. covering more city surfaces with urban rain gardens will allow for greater rainwater filtration and will ensure that our waterways and drinking glasses remain pollutant free and that our streets remain green!

lauren pollack is a junior at the george washington university majoring in political communication.

these rain water systems could even be used for emerging markets even as drinking water. rain water is easily purified, if necessary, using reverse osmosis or simple solar distillation.

i am working with the premier air to water manufacturer to produce the first commercially viable solar-powered machine to simply pull the water directly from thin air. this concept uses the same technology that your a/c systems use to remove heat from air. the byproduct of this process (removing heat from air) is water–why not put this yield to use in areas where water is difficult to come by?

photo credit to izik.