Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Artificial Rain from Potable Water

By - - and IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

SAO PAULO, Jun 10 2006 (IPS) - A method developed in Brazil and approved by the southern states of Sao Paulo and Santa Catarina, will produce artificial rains by seeding clouds with potable water, free of chemical products. They will use “warm clouds, without ice crystals, that can act in places with a semi-arid climate, like the Northeast region of Brazil,” research chief Takeshi Imai told Tierramérica.

In each flight, which lasts about an hour, “the airplane can spray 300 liters of water, for a quantity of rain equivalent to 15,000 tanker trucks,” he added.

The project was presented in 2002 at the 12th Brazilian Meteorology Congress in the southern city of Foz do Iguacu, and in 2005 won the Gold Medal for Water Science at an international symposium in Cannes, France.