How Morocco is Harvesting Water from Fog
At first sight, these large black nets stretched vertically in the middle of nowhere have no reason to be. They do, however, fulfill a great mission: transforming fog into water. This unusual idea has changed the lives of the inhabitants of five villages in southwestern Morocco, who no longer have to travel several kilometers each day to fetch the precious liquid.
This unusual installation is located 1,225 meters above sea level, at the summit of the Boutmezguida mountain which overlooks five villages of the Sidi Ifni region. It is there that about forty huge nets have been facing a dense fog since 2014.
In a remote region with a semi-arid climate, having water by opening a simple tap is a “revolution”, states Aïssa Derhem, president of the Dar Si Hmad organization. In Douar Id Achour, which is one of the five communities served, women and children lost an average of four hours a day by going back and forth to find water. This is even more common in summer, when water becomes rarer.
Marco Nedermeijer