Innovative "Fog Harvesting" Project Tackles Water Scarcity in Rural Morocco

"Drinking Fog". This is the project that the Moroccan Dar Si Hmad Foundation and the German NGO Wasserstiftung - Water Foundation have been implementing for the past twenty years in the Aït Baamrane tribes, in the southwest of the kingdom, which are affected each year by a severe water shortage. Until recently, women had to walk up to three hours to fetch water from surrounding sources. The idea of collecting fog water was then born. A fog water collection system. Now, 31 collectors made up of nets and gutters are nestled at over 1,500 meters altitude, on the fog-filled slopes of the Boutmezguida mountain, 26 km from Ait Baamrane, and provide water for 1,600 people, reports The News Arab.

"Fog collection consists of harvesting the water droplets from the fog. The wind pushes the fog through the net, which captures the water particles. These droplets cling to the mesh and grow as the fog accumulates, and when they become too heavy, they form a stream of water channeled through pipes to a reservoir," this is how the process is summarized. One square meter of net can produce up to 22 liters of water per day of fog. "Usually, the water comes from rain or groundwater, but in a region that suffers from chronic water shortages, it makes sense to desalinate, reuse or capture water from fog, because that’s not something people do automatically," said Jamila Bargach, founder of Dar Si Hmad.

Once the stream of water is channeled through pipes to a reservoir, the water is distributed to the surrounding residents. With a prepaid card, each person benefits from one cubic meter of water at the same rate as in other regions of the country. In case of excess consumption for basic needs, the price of water increases. A blessing for the villagers of Ait Baamrane "We don’t often think about the effects of water scarcity on quality of life. When you don’t have water, you live in water anxiety. Suddenly, the inhabitants of Ait Baamrane are no longer anxious about water and resume the course of their lives," said Jamila Bargach, adding that the project has also drawn attention to a region where people felt their voice was not being heard or that it did not count.

Thanks to this project, women no longer have to walk three hours a day to fetch water. They can therefore devote this time to their children. The men, for their part, have stable jobs. They take care of the fog collectors and the water distribution system. In addition, families can grow vegetables to ensure their subsistence.