In Chile, a community transforms fog into a source of water to cope with water scarcity and drought

There are days when the sky does not bring rain. Instead, a thick fog, called camanchaca, advances silently from the ocean and covers hills and ravines. The trees, plants and its animals welcome this humidity. But crops and communities miss the needed rain. Now, in Chile's Peña Blanca agricultural community, this fog is being captured drop by drop and transformed into the missing water.

This community, located in the Fray Jorge Biosphere Reserve on the slopes of a coastal mountain range, has had to adapt to droughts and periods of prolonged water scarcity. In these areas of northern Chile, the infrequent rainfall, climate variability and pressure on traditional sources have made access to water a daily challenge. Here, many families depend on wells, or when the wells dry up, on cistern trucks for their water supply. Then came the idea of installing fog catchers.

Originally developed in the 1950s by Chilean scientist, architect and professor Carlos Espinosa Arancibia, fog catchers have been used since 2006 in various areas of the country where water scarcity is a problem.

With the support of Un Alto en el Desierto Foundation and other institutions, the community installed numerous fog catchers throughout the Cerro Grande Ecological Reserve. These simple structures made of mesh intercept the microdroplets that make up fog.

Over the years, the community has perfected its fog catcher models, adjusting designs, materials and locations based on the region's combined experiences. This process has allowed them to develop increasingly efficient systems adapted to local conditions.

How it works

Fog catchers are as simple as they are precise. When the mist passes through the meshes, the microdroplets condense and run off into gutters. From there, the water is conveyed to storage ponds. Then, through a system of hoses, it is distributed to irrigation areas. On dry days, this constant flow makes it possible to keep crops alive and support small production cycles.

Today, the system has reached an unprecedented scale. The Cerro Grande Ecological Reserve has 34 fog catchers that total 306 square meters of catchment area. Together, they can collect up to 650 000 litres of water per year, mostly caught during the spring when the presence of fog and wind is greatest.

But its uniqueness is not only in the amount of water. It is one of the few systems in the world where the captured resource has multiple purposes: it is used for the irrigation of crops, the ecological restoration of native species and drinking water for people and animals.

Since the fog catchers' creation, the Reserve has received about 7 000 visitors, becoming a learning space for nature-based solutions.

Scaling up to combat water scarcity

The fog catcher system has continued to expand over time. Recently, through a project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) together with Chile's Ministry of the Environment and the National Forestry Corporation, 90 additional square meters of fog catchers were installed in the Reserve, strengthening the community's original undertaking.

This support from the FAO-GEF Land Restoration Project has made it possible to expand and refine an initiative that is today a reference in the country and in the region. The additional fog catchers implemented are expected to produce over 200 000 litres of water per year, making more water available in the spring and summer when the shortage is most critical.

"I hope we can continue to support the effort made by the community to show the world that things can be done," adds says Gustavo Carvajal, president of the Agricultural Community of Peña Blanca, as he watches over the panels installed on the hill.

Through FAO-GEF support combined with local knowledge and experience, innovative initiatives like fog catching can meet today's challenges and offer valuable examples for other countries around the world.

The story and photos can be found here: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/capturing-fog-to-make-water/en