Seasonal variation data of a high altitude semi-arid region targeted for atmospheric water harvesting

Semi-arid countries have suffered severe droughts in recent times which culminates in their socio-economic instability due to water insecurity. The water shortage challenges experienced by these countries is largely due to their geographical location, climate change, including fresh water sources’ pollution due to industrialisation and urbanisation. In most instances, the existing drinking water infrastructure has aged over many decades of existence and require extensive maintenance while regulatory agencies which are the main stakeholders in individual countries, have their own challenges to meet all the drinking water demands in individual countries. These drinking water challenges requires a need to explore better approaches such as atmospheric water harvesting. Research data shared in this paper, elucidates the use and performance of atmospheric water generators (AWGs) in a semi-arid region of South Africa (Ga-Rankuwa, 25.5864° S, 27.9876° E, Gauteng Province) with a proposal that such data can be a source of knowledge for other semi-arid regions globally to address the challenges of drinking water security, i.e. that atmospheric water harvesting be seen as an alternative technology to source potable water for drinking purposes during temporal or permanent downtimes of existing drinking water infrastructure due to maintenance or natural disasters. This will contribute to the SDG-6, i.e. to ensure access to clean potable/drinking water and sanitation for even impoverished communities globally.