The future of fog

If water does not fall from the sky, scoop it out of the air, at least in areas where dew and fog occur regularly and other water resources are scarce. There are several small fog collecting programmes in countries such as the Dominican Republic, South Africa, Nepal and Peru. Collectors are often made of large, vertically positioned sheets of cloth or other fine-meshed material. The largest project to date, in the arid coastal desert of northern Chile, has provided an average of 11,000 l of water per day to a village of 330 people. In the Cape Verde Islands, António Advino Sabino is an enthusiastic advocate of fog harvesting amongst the farmers living in mountain areas who are increasingly aware of the importance of fog collection to supply water for domestic use or watering animals. Four collectors were installed in Santo Antão in the community of Corda at 1200 metres altitude. Sabino has designed various tailor- made fog collectors in combination with sand-filters. Previous collectors used window-screens; in the future, these will be replaced with polypropylene Raschel mesh to enable better efficiency and drainage. The Meteorological Service of Canada is an important crossroads in the world of fog research, programmes and information dissemination. Their website: www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/armp/ offers a lot of information and they publish the Fog newsletter. They are also the driving force behind the Second International Conference on Fog and Fog Collection, to be held from 15 to 20 July 2001 in St. John s, Newfoundland, Canada, with the theme of Potential Applications of Fog Water Collection. One part of the programme will focus on the role of fog in water planning for developing countries, results of operational fog collection projects, and fog dissipation . To know more: Fog newsletter & conference Robert Schemenauer, PO Box 81541 Toronto, Ontario Canada M2R 2X1 Fax: 1 416 739 4211 Email: Robert.Schemenauer@ec.gc.ca António Advino Sabino C.P. 534 - Praia Republic of Cape Verde Fax: +238 624 178 Email: Procave@cvtelecom.cv Agricultural uses of occult precipitation A N Acosta Baladón, Agrometeorological Applications Associates, CTA, FAO, EU & WMO. 1995. 146 pp. CTA number 782. 20 credit pointsIf water does not fall from the sky, scoop it out of the air, at least in areas where dew and fog occur regularly and other water resources are scarce. There are several small fog collecting programmes in countries such as the Dominican Republic,..