‘Fog Catchers’ In Chile Make Water Out Of Thin Air, Harvest 840 Liters A Day
There are many ways to get clean water from nature. One of the most popular techniques is by digging underground but recently, people of Peña Blanca invented another technique: making water out of thin air.
How is this possible? These people simply use nets. Yes, you heard it right, large nets, and they call it “fog catchers.’”
The nets are strung up in areas with thick fog and high winds. The fog is pushed into the nets where it condenses and trickles down. The condensed fog is collected bellow.
This means to say that the “fog catchers” are huge nets made of a polypropylene mesh that captures the droplets and these are hung between two poles. These droplets would then flow into storage tanks placed underneath the nets, as per Mail Online.
The said technique has originated in Chile in the 1950s and is said to be a cheap, effective, and clean way to get water. It is also a good alternative to desalination.
One-hundred and forty square meters of these nets can harvest 840 liters of water per day, which is shared among 85 landowners of Pena Blanca, reported CNN. The media outlet further quoted community leader Daniel Rojas saying, "Water shortage is a worldwide problem and we are not oblivious to it. It rains less and less, there is a lack of vegetation, fewer crops and people are affected in every sense. But here we have a natural resource that wasn't being exploited."
Furthermore, it helps that a thick coastal fog called “Camanchaca” rolls the arid coastal region of Peña Blanca in most days. Chamanchaca is usually liked by the locals as it means more water will be produced by the nets and there will be more water supplied to their town. Rainfall is scarce in the region of Peña Blanca, in Santiago, Chile; hence, water is also scarce.
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