The lesson of the fog drinkers
I
n 1987, an experimental contraption appeared on a ridge near Chungungo, a village in arid northern Chile where fog was common but rain rarely fell. The IDRC-sponsored device was a large piece of polypropylene mesh stretched between poles and held up by wires. Underneath was a long trough. It was a fog catcher. Water would condense out of the fog, coalesce into droplets, and then slide down the mesh and into the collecting trough. The experiment proved successful, and by 1992 dozens more fog catchers had been built and water was being directed to a pipeline connected to a reservoir in Chungungo, seven kilometres away. The collectors produced an average of fifteen thousand litres of water a day for the village’s population of three hundred people — enough for drinking, bathing, and irrigating. Gardens appeared, and the new water supply attracted more people to the village, tripling its population. But the array of collectors required maintenance — which had not been adequately planned for — and eventually fell into disrepair. By 2002, the system had stopped operating and townspeople — who regarded the project as second-rate to a “real” running-water system — went back to having their water hauled in by truck. This setback taught planners the importance of consultating with local people to ensure they were committed to the long-term maintenance of a fog collecting system. Similar fog catchers have since been set up successfully in other parts of central Chile, as well as in up to twenty-five other countries.
Canada’s History
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