The solution was in front of our eyes for so many years
Water is without a doubt our planet's chief resource, and we should spare no efforts in saving it so for the coming generations. While some adults aren't too concerned with that water and waste millions of liters of water every year, two kids from Germany have come up with an idea to collect and reuse rainwater on cars.
While traveling in the family car last summer, brother and sister Daniel and Lara Krohn were intrigued that there was no more water in the washer fluid tank to wipe the windscreen, even though it was pouring rain outside.
"It was a downpour. There was water everywhere – except in the windscreen wiper reservoir. My sister and I thought this was really funny and then the answer suddenly seemed obvious. Simply reuse the rainwater."
Daniel Krohn, 11 years old
To test their idea, Daniel and his 9-year-old sister Lara used a toy fire engine and fixed the pump to a model car inside an aquarium where they simulated rain. After that, they added a filtering system to ensure the water was clean, and everything worked like a charm.
As with all great ideas, theirs is a simply clever one (pun intended) and could one day help save billions of liters of water, since it's estimated that each driver uses around 20 liters of water a year to keep the windscreen clean. Water usage is expected to increase as many modern cars feature headlight washers as well as cameras and sensors that also need to be kept clean.
The children's idea to capture the raindrops and reuse them won first prize in a local science competition and caught the attention of Ford engineers who went on to install a full-sized device into a Ford S-MAX. To collect the water rubber pipes connect the bottom of the windscreen to the reservoir. According to Ford, five minutes of rainfall is enough to replenish the washer fluid tank.
Here's hoping this system will become a standard feature on all production cars.
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