Harvesting fresh water from fog in Ait Baamrane, Morocco

Tackling water scarcity in Morocco by harvesting fog

Author: Reach Alliance

Dar Si Hmad, a nonprofit organization located in the cities of Sidi Ifni and Agadir, aims to “promote local culture and create sustainable initiatives through education and the integration and use of scientific ingenuity with the communities of Southwest Morocco.” Their major initiative is their fog-harvesting project,
delivering clean water to the landlocked rural communities of southern Morocco that previously
did not have access to potable water. 

Given the substantial occurrence of fog atop the AntiAtlas Mountains of Ait Baamrane, which lasted from about June until September, fog harvesting became an alternative source of fresh water for the communities in this region. DSH currently serves 16 villages and plans to expand to 12 more villages within Ait Baamrane. DSH installs their fog-harvesting units 1,200 meters above sea level at the summit of Mount Boutmezguida at an intersection with the Sahara winds. They currently have installed 1,700 square meters of nets that have a honeycomb style of netting. 

When the nets trap fog, water sticks to the netting and runs to the bottom of the netting. It then gets collected in a gutter and then funneled into an underground container. From there, it is sent to a mixing reservoir, where the water is pumped via photovoltaic power to be mixed with minerals. The mineralized water is first piped to a village where smaller pipes then veer from the main piping system toward individual households.

DSH, households pay a combination of a base fee and a per-use fee, which totals an average of
45 dirham/per month (approximately 5.5 USD). Once the water is accessed at the household
level, it can be used for drinking, cleaning, and/or agricultural purposes.

DSH’s fog-harvesting project is the world’s largest fog water collection and distribution system and the only one located in North Africa. Recorded benefits to these communities include the development of a sustainable alternative water supply, freshwater access in homes and schools, lower incidents of water-borne diseases, increased livelihood opportunities, reduced water-gathering time, girls’ increased attendance in schools, increased employment, improved water supply for agriculture and reforestation,
decreased need to sell animals because of limited water, and increased participation of women in natural resource management.

In addition to the fog-collection project, DSH has created several subprojects, including adult literacy training, a water school, WASH (water, sanitation, and health) training, a reforestation program, and the installation of eco-friendly hygienic toilets.

 A significant development was the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) via mobile phones, personal computers, tablets, and custom software designed for monolingual and low-literate Amazigh women to report on the water distribution system’s conditions. This project has also led to the establishment of a research centre dedicated to the study of fog and environmental sustainability. Research partners include climate scientists and meteorologists from the University of La Laguna in the Canary Islands, Spain; Germany’s Wasserstiftung Water Foundation and Research Institute; the
Department of Ecoclimatology at Technische Universität München (TUM) and the Water Institute in Rabat, Morocco. Other partners include student researchers and engineers from the University of Colorado’s ATLAS Institute, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, and the Tifawin Institute in Colorado. DSH receives further public and private financial support from USAID, the Munich Re Foundation,
and other donors in Morocco, Spain, Germany, and the United States.

Although fog-harvesting technology has been implemented in other geographic regions where fog is present in larger amounts and for longer periods of time (such as in northern Chile), DSH has experienced the most success. Given that DSH has continued to operate and expand for over ten years and is currently the world’s largest fog-collection project, it serves as a highly valuable model to understand how development technologies can be aligned with concerns about climate change.

Source: https://reachalliance.org/case-study/dar-si-hmad-harvesting-water-from-fog/