Could it be we've been pointing our sandpoints in the wrong direction? According to Dr Max Whisson, a retired medical specialist turned inventor out in Perth Australia, if we set our well taps pointing up in the air, even dry areas could pull in clean fresh water harvesting free ambient humidity through his high-efficiency wind-powered turbine refridgerator:

"The wind carries in the water and [provides] the power required to separate that water from the wind," says Whisson ...

He says there is a huge amount of water in the atmosphere that is replaced every few hours. This means the whole world could just use water from the air without disrupting the environment ... the system would even harvest significant amounts of water in areas with low humidity.

He says a 4 metre square device could extract an average 7500 litres of water a day.
[ via Making Water out of Thin Air ]