Latest device to squeeze water from fog: a mesh Researchers harvest clean water from fog

New York Observers checking the latest device to help parched communities could be excused for saying the experts haven't the foggiest notion about water storage. However, researchers insist that nets made of a porous plastic mesh can now trap water droplets from just that - fog.

The gadgets could be an effective solution to the problems of meagre or unclean supplies. One net can collect 66 gallons of water a day, enough for a family. The water, which does not need to be filtered, is piped into a holding tank. FogQuest, a Canadian charity that promotes the technology, has been involved in dozens of projects across South America as well as Nepal, Haiti and Namibia.

In Peru, nets have been erected on the slopes above Lima. Rain rarely falls on the Peruvian capital or the surrounding hills, where many of its poor live.

However, two German scientists, Kai Tiedemann and Anne Lummerich, have harnessed the dense fogs that sweep in from the Pacific every winter and last for eight months a year.

Robert Schemenauer, FogQuest's executive director, said desert dwellers might have started harvesting fog from trees as long as 2,000 years ago. "We're getting an awful lot of requests now from all over the world," he said.