Saudi-born chemist Omar Yaghi, who shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has announced a breakthrough water harvesting technology capable of extracting up to 1,000 liters of clean drinking water per day from air, even in the driest desert conditions. The innovation, developed through his company Atoco, represents a potential paradigm shift in global water security.
Reticular Chemistry Meets Real-World Crisis
The technology relies on metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, a class of highly porous materials that Yaghi pioneered over two decades of research at the University of California, Berkeley. These molecular sponges are engineered at the atomic level to capture moisture from ambient air and release it as pure water using minimal energy.
Each harvesting unit, roughly the size of a standard 20-foot shipping container, operates entirely off-grid using low-grade thermal energy from its surrounding environment. This makes the system deployable in disaster-stricken areas, remote communities, and island nations where traditional water infrastructure has collapsed or never existed.
A Personal Mission Rooted in Scarcity
Yaghi, who holds Saudi citizenship and grew up in a refugee community in Jordan, has spoken publicly about the water shortages that shaped his childhood. Deliveries arrived once every week or two, an experience that he says drove his lifelong pursuit of water independence through science.
That personal connection now fuels a global ambition. A recent United Nations report warned that the world has entered what it called an era of water bankruptcy, with roughly three-quarters of the global population living in countries facing some degree of water insecurity. More than two billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water.
From Caribbean Islands to the Arabian Peninsula
Officials in Grenada, which suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Beryl in 2024, are exploring the technology as a viable solution for the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique. These communities continue to face the combined challenges of hurricane damage, drought, and coastal erosion.
Yaghi has also positioned the technology as a more sustainable alternative to seawater desalination, noting that traditional desalination plants can harm marine ecosystems through the discharge of concentrated brine. For Saudi Arabia, a nation that has invested heavily in desalination as part of its water strategy, Yaghi’s MOF-based approach could offer a complementary path forward under the broader goals of Vision 2030.
The chemist emphasized that climate solutions are no longer a technological luxury but an existential necessity, calling for stronger investment in scientific research and greater international cooperation on water and climate challenges.
