Haven't the foggiest - Currents - fog as a safe water source - Brief Article

New Internationalist, June, 2003

Fog gets a bad press It s associated with a creepy malevolence that belies its innate worth as a generous supplier of drinking water. Fog Quest a Canadian-based non-profit organization, aims to exploit the blanket-like stuff to its fullest.

Being a mass of water vapour condensed into small droplets ranging between 1 and 40 millimetres, fog is surprisingly easy to collect. A double layer of thin mesh erected against the wind between two poles with a trough connected to a storage tank underneath will suffice. Fog Quest's largest project to date in Chungungo, Chile, provides the 330 inhabitants with a daily haul of 11,000 litres of water.

Like most good ideas, however, nature was there first. Every morning the Stenocara beetle of Namibia tilts its body toward the wind and prepares to be engulfed by dense fog. Its fused wings provide a surface for the water droplets to form which subsequently roll down into its mouth.

With just three per cent of the world's water deemed safe to drink, fog collecting looks set to make its mark, Projects currently under way include the construction of 12 new fog collectors on Talinay mountain in central Chile which could bring 2,500 litres of water a day to a place with an average annual rainfall of only 100 millimetres. Feasibility studies are also being carried out in the Hajja region of Yemen, the highlands around Lake Atitlan in Guatemala and the village of Danada Bazaar in eastern Nepal.

Down To Earth, 15 April 2003