Morocco’s fog harvest for water supply puts end to exhausting daily treks

Green technology to turn fog into fresh water straight from the tap has put an end to exhausting daily treks to distant wells by village women in southwest Morocco. Families in five highland Berber communities have begun to benefit from “fog harvesting”, a technique devised in Chile two decades ago and since taken up in countries from Peru to Namibia and South Africa. On the summit of a mountain named Boutmezguida, which looms over the villages at 1,225 metres, thick fog shrouds about 40 finely meshed panels designed to trap water and relay it to a network of pipes.

To have water running from a faucet at home is a revolution for inhabitants of the semi-arid mountains known as the Anti-Atlas.

Aissa Derhem, chairman of Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture (DSH).

Tiny droplets are caught on the mesh while fog wafts through panels. The harvesters mix all they catch with more water derived from drilling, then supply the villages on the lower slopes. The scheme will be extended to other villages and, in time, advocates hope, to other parts of the country. In the village of Douar Id Achour, residents are proud of their new taps, for good reason. Women and children used to spend an average of four hours a day on a round trip to a well, even longer in dry summer.

Science