Every year, people die following famine caused by draughts. Is this the end? A new polymer called “Solid Rain” may help diminishing these natural disasters.
Farmers in arid countries could soon have a cure for the droughts that blight their crops – in the form of powdered water.
The powder, called Solid Rain, looks like sugar and is made of an absorbent material called potassium polyacrylate, capable of soaking in liquids up to 500 times its size.
The water absorbed by the polymer can be stored for up to a year without evaporating – the only time it is extracted is when it is by the roots of plants when the can be added to soils to produce water for plants.
