Understanding the Link Between Drought and Flooding: How Atoco’s AWH Technology Offers a Path Toward Climate Resilience

At first glance, drought and flooding may seem like opposite phenomena—one marked by absence, the other by excess. Yet they are intimately connected, often arising from the same underlying environmental disruptions.

1. The Soil-Water Imbalance
During prolonged droughts, the ground dries and hardens. Without sufficient moisture, soil compacts and loses its natural porosity. Vegetation dies off, which further reduces the land’s ability to retain water. When rain eventually does come—often as intense, short-lived storms due to warming climate patterns—the hardened soil cannot absorb the water efficiently. Instead of soaking in, it rushes across the surface, causing flash floods, erosion, and destruction.

2. Loss of Natural Water Buffers
Forests, wetlands, and healthy soil systems act as natural buffers, slowing and regulating water flow. Droughts weaken these systems, and floods destroy what’s left. Over time, this cycle leads to a downward spiral: fertile land turns barren, aquifers dry up, and both people and ecosystems are left increasingly vulnerable.

3. Climate Volatility is the New Norm
Global warming amplifies the water cycle. Warmer air holds more moisture, which increases the intensity of rainfall events. At the same time, heatwaves become more prolonged and frequent, drying out landscapes. This volatility makes traditional water infrastructure—dams, reservoirs, pipelines—less reliable, especially in rural or developing areas.

The effectiveness of methods aiming at mitigating these issues such as reforestation or sustainable land management ultimately hinges on the availability of water. Without access to this vital resource, these approaches become largely ineffective. Remarkably, while surface water resources like rivers and lakes are under increasing stress, there exists an untapped, abundant, and renewable water source overhead: the atmosphere.

There is approximately seven times more water in the Earth’s atmosphere than in all of its rivers combined. This water is constantly renewed through the hydrological cycle, making atmospheric moisture a resilient and sustainable resource. So why are we not using it to supplement our water supplies and combat desertification and therefore the vicious drought-flooding cycle?

While attempts to harvest water from the air have existed for a long time, traditional Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs) come with significant drawbacks:

• Cooling-condensation systems require high energy inputs to cool air below its dew point, making them inefficient and costly, particularly in arid regions.

• Desiccant-based systems work better in low-humidity environments but require high regeneration temperatures and pose potential environmental risks from chemical waste.

Both methods struggle in arid and remote environments where the consequences of water scarcity are the most severe.

Atoco’s AWH solutions represent a paradigm shift. We do not rely on traditional cooling-condensation or chemical desiccants. Instead, our technology utilizes nano-engineered reticular reticular materials designed with atomic precision to adsorb water from the air at extremely low humidity levels. Furthermore, Atoco’s passive AWH systems are entirely powered by free ambient energy enabling utility-scale water generation off the grid – even in the most remote regions.

• Decentralized — Atoco’s solutions can function off-grid relying entirely on ambient energy without the need for grid electricity. Generating clean water locally eliminates costly transport of water and democratizes access to clean water.

• Resilient — A decentralized water generation reduces the risks of climate change related water emergencies, such as drought, seawater intrusions or extreme weather. If roads are blocked or electricity is out, Atoco’s Off-Grid AWH solutions can still generate clean water for vulnerable communities.

• Sustainable — Atoco’s solutions harvest water from an untapped and inexhaustible resource of water: the air. Thereby scarce surface or underground water resources are not depleted. Moreover, by relying on natural ambient energy to generate water, the technology produces no carbon emissions.

• Cost Efficient — As the technology eliminates the need to transport water by road or pipeline and as the water generation relies on free ambient energy, Atoco’s Off-Grid AWH solutions offer a cost-competitive alternative to other sources of water in arid regions.

By bridging the extremes of drought and flooding, Atoco’s Atmospheric Water Harvesting technology provides not just a technological breakthrough, but a systems-level solution for climate resilience. It enables communities to reclaim degraded land, grow food sustainably, and reduce dependency on failing water infrastructure—all while remaining adaptable to the increasingly unpredictable patterns of a warming world.

In a time when climate volatility threatens water security for billions, Atoco offers a radically practical and visionary path forward. By capturing water from the air and powering the process with ambient energy, we’re not only answering today’s water crisis—we’re reshaping what’s possible for tomorrow’s communities, ecosystems, and economies. The atmosphere holds the water. Atoco delivers it.

Find out more about how we tackle desertification as one of the main consequences of the global water scarcity crisis in our white paper: Fighting Desertification With Atmospheric Water Harvesting – Atoco

Atoco is a leader in climate technology and was founded by Professor Omar Yaghi, the inventor of Reticular Chemistry. Atoco utilizes reticular materials such as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) to develop breakthrough solutions for carbon capture and atmospheric water harvesting. These technologies, designed with atomic precision, are engineered to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges: climate change and water scarcity.