Water is the most important resource in the world since we need it for almost everything we do; drinking, washing, cooking, cleaning, bathing, growing crops, feeding cattle, and more. Did you know that it takes 10,000 liters of water to make just one pair of jeans, 2,700 liters for a T-shirt, and agriculture alone uses about 70% of the earth's freshwater? Thus, there are 7.5 billion people on earth who share earth’s commodities and by 2050 that number is expected to reach 10 billion.
Fog Catchers: Magicians Making Water Out Of Air
Although 72% of Earth is made up of water, 97% is not suitable for drinking as it is salty ocean water. In some countries, not only do children miss out on getting an education while adults also miss work, but each year 300,000 children under the age of five die due to dirty water. According to the U.N, out of every ten people, at least two do not have a clean source of drinking water, and therefore, millions of them — mostly children — die due to diseases caused by an inadequate supply of sanitized water. Therefore, providing water around the globe to those in need is vital. Fortunately, there is a way to obtain clean water which is already being used in many deprived countries around the world.
Sanitized Water Is Being Collected By Fog Catchers
The Atacama Desert in northern Chile that spans to Peru is the driest desert in the world as it has never recorded any rainfall. In fact, it is so dry that mountains elevated at 22,589 ft., are glacier free. Nevertheless, this desert and others alike around the world may soon be reborn as there is a process being used to gather the vapors from fog to produce water. While there may not be water on the ground, there is, however, moist air coming from the dense coastal fog that can be collected and used to supply those in need of a good clean source of water. This process can shed some life on deprived desolate landscapes by making it possible to grow crops in these areas.
Scientists of the Alto Patache research Centre of The Universidad Catolica found plants growing in the desert from seeds that had been hidden for many years hydrated by water collected during fog. Some projects, using fog water to transform dry patches of deserts into large scale farmlands, have been performed to verify the validity of growing crops in desolate areas. Today the process is being utilized by local villagers around the globe, using specially designed nets to gather water collected from the vapor in the air.
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Fog Catchers? What Are They?
Fog collectors are large nets made of a polypropylene mesh that is hung between two poles to capture the droplets of water from mists in the air that are provided by the fog. When the droplets are collected, they flow through large storage tanks where it's kept for use or shipped by trucks to nearby locations. For example, in places like the Andes, water is being piped through towns from many miles away or delivered by water trucks.
The best part about all this is that the water is pure and can be used for agriculture and for drinking. Therefore, we have found a sustainable way to replenish extremely dry areas.
Fog Water Has Been Collected For Centuries
Collecting fog and dew is nothing new; it is an ancient practice that has been around for thousands of years. In fact, archaeologists found evidence that low circular walls were built around vines and plants in Israel to collect condensation moisture. Furthermore, in Egypt and the Atacama Desert of South America, stones were arranged in piles for the condensation to trickle down the inside of the walls where it was collected and stored. Deserts and regions that only get less than one millimeter of rain each year can collect water using fog collectors as long as there are light winds and of course, enough fog.
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Fog Collectors Today? Who Is Responsible For Using Them?
There are a number of scientists and professors who have been involved with fog water research for many years; climatologist Jana Olivier is an associate professor at the 'University of South Africa' (UNISA) 'School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences'.
Olivier worked in collaboration with three researchers at the University of Pretoria- Professor Hannes Rautenbach, Professor Johan van Heerden, and Tinus Truter- on many projects in South Africa where people have always suffered and even died for lacking clean water. The group launched a fog harvesting project in at least 6 water-stressed locations in South Africa and thanks to them, the residents now have clean water to drink, grow food, and make money.
In addition, FogQuest is a Canadian non-profit organization that was founded by atmospheric scientist Robert Schemenauer and Sherry Bennett in 2000, after 20 years of working on fog collection.
The organization is made up of volunteers and they get their funding from donations, grants, and membership fees. The company makes nets to collect the water from moisture in the air. They have established projects utilizing modern fog collectors to instill reforestation and irrigation in developing countries in many locations around the world including Guatemala, Peru, Eritrea, Ecuador, Oman, South Africa, Nepal, Cape Verde Islands, Israel, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Chile.
Cloud Catchers of Peru
Fog Catchers: Making Water Out Of Air In Africa, Peru, Chile
Make Water Out Of Air: How Does the Process Work?
Fog comes from a cloud touching the ground. It is made up of mist or tiny droplets of water. According to FogQuest, one cubic meter of fog contains between 0.05 and 0.5 grams of water. Fog collectors are made of a polyethylene or polypropylene mesh and resemble a giant volleyball net that is hung between two large poles. They are extremely effective at capturing droplets of water. When the fog comes through, the tiny water droplets will cling to the mesh and will soon cluster together as more build-up. These water clusters will then drip into the gutter setup below and channel the water into a water tank.
The process works best in high-elevated areas both rural and arid. However, it wouldn’t work well in cities due to the water and space constraint requirements of urban environments. Projects can use anywhere from 2 to 100 fog collectors to collect between 150 and 750 liters of fresh water per panel each day depending on the location and how much fog is in the air. Annual precipitation in Chile is less than 6 centimeters where 100 fog collectors have been gathering 15,000 liters of water each year for the past ten years. Harvested fog water also meets the standards of the World Health Organization’s drinking water.
Water Out Of Air Collected Around the World
Above Lima, Peru, the hills gets around 1.5 centimeters of rain every year; however, fog from the Pacific Ocean comes in from June to November. In the village of Bellavista, a FogQuest project uses seven fog collectors to collect 2,271 liters of water per day. The villagers now have enough water to drink, grow gardens, and grow Tara trees that produce tannins, which are sold and used as leather treatment. Eventually, the trees will self-sustain and collect their own water from fog, replenishing the groundwater and reforesting the area.
Before you go!
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