The human body contains from 55% to 78% water. To function properly, the body requires between one and seven litres of water per day to avoid dehydration.
Globally, one every five person doesn’t have access to clean drinking water. Two in five do not have adequate sanitation facilities and many countries have a complete lack of public structures like aqueducts and safe place to store water.
Fog collection is a clever low-tech way to supply fresh water in an area with minimal rainfall. Chile, Nepal, and southern Africa have successfully installed fog-catching arrays, fine nets that are vertically positioned between poles, with a gutter at the bottom. As fog droplets pass through the nets, they impact on the fibres and run down into the gutter; the water is then channelled in the reservoirs. The collected water can supply homes, irrigation systems, or whole villages. The system require minimum maintenance, it’s an inexpensive device with no moving parts and no need for power. The fog water is naturally drinkable.
Fog Quest, a Canadian nonprofits organization, has been the first to successfully utilize and position fog collectors; Its first installation in Chilean village of Chungungo, accumulated an average of 15000 to 100000 litres of water per day in 10 years of functioning.
QinetiQ a UK company had developed a new fog catcher that uses Bio-mimicry to increase the effectiveness of the nets. The new technology has been inspired by the Namibian desert beetle’s, this insect on his back has evolved a shell that has a combination of hydrophilic bumps on hydrophobic furrows, which strain moisture from the air and concentrates it. Namib Desert is an incredibly hot, dry environment where the occasional morning fog is the only source of water.