Many of Chile’s poor, northern coastal villages have suffered in recent years from water shortages in spite of the abundance of cloud cover and fog in the region. This absence of rainfall has imposed severe hardship on communities. They cannot grow crops and must carefully ration their water, which has to be delivered by truck.
2 Chilean researchers have produced a pilot project that could alleviate this problem. Adopting conventional water system, they have redevised a centuries-old method to capture the water droplets of the fog. In this method, triangular-weave polypropylene nets are attached to wooden support posts on El Tofo mountain to serve as water collectors. Each of these nets can collect approximately 40 gallons of water each day. When the fog develops, droplets of water are trapped in the nets and join to form larger drops that then fall into a trough. From the troughs, the water drains through filters into underground tanks and then piped to a storage tank, where it is chemically treated to kill disease-causing organisms. Finally, water flows to individual households, just as in traditional water systems. This collection system can supply the tiny, poor community with 2,500 gallons per day, enough for the entire community to sustain their lives. "We went crazy when they opened the tap for the first time," said Sergio Espejo.
3 The water is not only clean but far less expensive than water delivered to the area. Moreover, it is collected at no apparent cost to the environment. It is likely that this system could be successfully implemented in other areas around the world with similar environmental conditions and economic constraints.
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