Innovative Fog Fences

In Africa and South America, people are implementing a new, simple technology to capture water from fog—and it’s surprisingly effective. People in dry places may have already been collecting water from fog 2,000 years ago by capturing it when it drips from tree leaves, but today an innovative “fog fence” has been developed. A fog fence is made of mesh strung between poles, like a humongous, dense volleyball net. Water droplets in the fog collect on the mesh and then drip into troughs below. The fog fences have been particularly successful in a resource-poor community of 200 people in Lima, Peru, where they are able to provide the community with 75 gallons of water daily. This is fantastic news for rural communities in dry places which may have little to no access to water, and it will be interesting to see if there is potential for fog fences to be implemented on a larger scale, or in urban areas where there may be a greater demand for water. Read more here and here.