Post by LaFille on Jul 23, 2009 0:12:31 GMT
Simple, old-known devices apparently surprisingly effective. 
Full article from the National Geographics here.
When people from rural Peru move to Lima, the capital, they're looking for a better life. But things can be tough.
It's hard to find a job in the city. The jobs they can get—bus driver, street vendor, construction worker—don't pay well.
And the cheapest area to live is high on steep hills on the edge of the city, where landslides are common and water is scarce.
(See pictures of the fog-catching nets in Peru.)
Rain rarely falls on these dry hills. The annual precipitation in Lima is about half an inch (1.5 centimeters), and the city gets its water from far-off Andean lakes.
But every winter, from June to November, dense fog sweeps in from the Pacific Ocean.
With a few thousand dollars and some volunteer labor, a village can set up fog-collecting nets that gather hundreds of gallons of water a day—without a single drop of rain falling.
[...]
The newcomers who settle there build plywood shacks on unclaimed land. If the residents stay long enough, they can obtain the title to the land from the government.
One of the requirements for getting the title is to plant trees upslope. Earthquakes are common around Lima, and trees help stabilize the land and guard against landslides.
But trees have needs. "It's not really a problem for them to plant a tree," Tiedemann said. "The problem is the irrigation." And that's what he and Lummerich aimed to help with.
The village of Bellavista (population about 200), was founded seven years ago in the hills 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of downtown Lima. Tiedemann and Lummerich were won over by the community leader, Noe Neira Tocto, who made it clear that his village was motivated to do the hard work needed to make the project a success.
Since its founding, Bellavista has attracted people from all over the country.
Most come from farms, so they have the skills to grow their own food, but the fertile soil in Bellavista has gone to waste, since there's not enough water for irrigation.
Villagers have to buy water for everything—cooking, cleaning, drinking—from trucks that drive up the steep hill every week. The residents pay ten times as much as people farther downhill, who are connected to the municipal supply. For a family of four, water can come to the equivalent of U.S. $7 to $10 a week—a huge sum in a village where family income might average about $40 a week.
(Related: "'Water Mafias' Put Stranglehold on Public Water Supply.")
When the Bellavista fog-catching project began in 2006, people from the village did all the heavy lifting and digging. They had to lug 94-pound (43-kilogram) bags of sand about 800 feet (250 meters) up the steep hill—about 15 minutes a trip—to stabilize the nets and build pools to gather water collected by the fog catchers.
Even as they worked, though, the villagers thought the fog-catching idea sounded a little crazy. "They listened to us politely, but they didn't really believe that it worked," Lummerich said.
When water started appearing, it seemed too good to be true. "At the beginning," Lummerich said, "the people from the village thought Kai carried the water uphill during the night to fill the tanks, because they couldn't believe there was so much water."
[...]
Bringing the Natural Water Cycle Back
Two other villages near Bellavista now have the fog collectors as well, and Lummerich and Tiedemann hope to bring more someday to other dry communities in Peru.
In the meantime, the people of Bellavista are using water from their seven fog catchers to plant trees higher up on the hill, in hopes of eventually getting the title to the land they live on.
They are growing tara trees, which bear a valuable fruit whose tannins are used for treating furniture leather. The money they'll earn from selling the fruit will help pay for maintaining the fog-catching installations.
Eventually the trees should be able to collect their own water, as the leaves act like fog collectors themselves, accumulating the water, which should drip down and replenish groundwater.
Even after the trees are taken care of, there's enough excess water now to feed gardens below the fog collectors.
Tiedemann's dream is to bring the natural water cycle back to the hills around Lima.
Some of the city's oldest residents remember when the hills were covered in trees. Those trees would have taken their moisture from the air, too, and the excess would have added to groundwater.
Tiedemann thinks it could happen again. For him and Bellavista's villagers, the 700 young tara trees now growing on the hillside mark the start of a dream coming true.
It's hard to find a job in the city. The jobs they can get—bus driver, street vendor, construction worker—don't pay well.
And the cheapest area to live is high on steep hills on the edge of the city, where landslides are common and water is scarce.
(See pictures of the fog-catching nets in Peru.)
Rain rarely falls on these dry hills. The annual precipitation in Lima is about half an inch (1.5 centimeters), and the city gets its water from far-off Andean lakes.
But every winter, from June to November, dense fog sweeps in from the Pacific Ocean.
With a few thousand dollars and some volunteer labor, a village can set up fog-collecting nets that gather hundreds of gallons of water a day—without a single drop of rain falling.
[...]
The newcomers who settle there build plywood shacks on unclaimed land. If the residents stay long enough, they can obtain the title to the land from the government.
One of the requirements for getting the title is to plant trees upslope. Earthquakes are common around Lima, and trees help stabilize the land and guard against landslides.
But trees have needs. "It's not really a problem for them to plant a tree," Tiedemann said. "The problem is the irrigation." And that's what he and Lummerich aimed to help with.
The village of Bellavista (population about 200), was founded seven years ago in the hills 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of downtown Lima. Tiedemann and Lummerich were won over by the community leader, Noe Neira Tocto, who made it clear that his village was motivated to do the hard work needed to make the project a success.
Since its founding, Bellavista has attracted people from all over the country.
Most come from farms, so they have the skills to grow their own food, but the fertile soil in Bellavista has gone to waste, since there's not enough water for irrigation.
Villagers have to buy water for everything—cooking, cleaning, drinking—from trucks that drive up the steep hill every week. The residents pay ten times as much as people farther downhill, who are connected to the municipal supply. For a family of four, water can come to the equivalent of U.S. $7 to $10 a week—a huge sum in a village where family income might average about $40 a week.
(Related: "'Water Mafias' Put Stranglehold on Public Water Supply.")
When the Bellavista fog-catching project began in 2006, people from the village did all the heavy lifting and digging. They had to lug 94-pound (43-kilogram) bags of sand about 800 feet (250 meters) up the steep hill—about 15 minutes a trip—to stabilize the nets and build pools to gather water collected by the fog catchers.
Even as they worked, though, the villagers thought the fog-catching idea sounded a little crazy. "They listened to us politely, but they didn't really believe that it worked," Lummerich said.
When water started appearing, it seemed too good to be true. "At the beginning," Lummerich said, "the people from the village thought Kai carried the water uphill during the night to fill the tanks, because they couldn't believe there was so much water."
[...]
Bringing the Natural Water Cycle Back
Two other villages near Bellavista now have the fog collectors as well, and Lummerich and Tiedemann hope to bring more someday to other dry communities in Peru.
In the meantime, the people of Bellavista are using water from their seven fog catchers to plant trees higher up on the hill, in hopes of eventually getting the title to the land they live on.
They are growing tara trees, which bear a valuable fruit whose tannins are used for treating furniture leather. The money they'll earn from selling the fruit will help pay for maintaining the fog-catching installations.
Eventually the trees should be able to collect their own water, as the leaves act like fog collectors themselves, accumulating the water, which should drip down and replenish groundwater.
Even after the trees are taken care of, there's enough excess water now to feed gardens below the fog collectors.
Tiedemann's dream is to bring the natural water cycle back to the hills around Lima.
Some of the city's oldest residents remember when the hills were covered in trees. Those trees would have taken their moisture from the air, too, and the excess would have added to groundwater.
Tiedemann thinks it could happen again. For him and Bellavista's villagers, the 700 young tara trees now growing on the hillside mark the start of a dream coming true.
Full article from the National Geographics here.
But Handy, my fellow aussie... did you ever realize how old people are UNABLE to follow water restrictions? Not sure how it is in Melbourne but here in Adelaide, at least in summer, we have that "only water your lawn with a bucket" thing and old people are unable to understand that. They even water now (in winter) when it rains dogs and cats!
