The Mega Structure
It has been found that people from different points of time have used the dew, formed by fog, as a source of pure drinking water since times immemorial. However a group of scientists in Chile during the 50’s actually began to measure the capacity of these moisture-laden clouds and began to develop structures which could actually collect dew from these clouds. Over the course of the past five years, many groups of architects have been researching and testing small structures of fog collectors in the Atacama Desert, which is noted for not having received a single drop of rain in recorded history and the only source of water in this dry desert in fog. Architect Rodrigo Perez de Arce is supervising the project which is being conducted by students from Santiago’s Catholic University and the Atacama Desert Center in Chile. In this project a series of complex structures are being made to create a Fog Garden for collecting sufficient water that can cater to an entire garden and also an adjacent village. A few prototypes of this Fog Garden have already been made; however, the entire project will take some time to complete.
What makes it Mega?
There are many places around the world where the only source of moisture is fog and this runs true in the case of the Atacama Desert that stretches across Peru and Chile. This desert is known for being the driest place on Earth and is also equated to Mars. For many years architects have been finding out the feasibility of collecting moisture from fog to actually make it a potent source of water via fog-collecting towers. The project features a very unique utopia that has barren land and lush gardens living in harmony which would support both a garden and also a local village with enough water. A few prototypes of these water collecting structures have been displayed that will eventually go into the making of a Fog Garden. Eventually, upon construction and completion, the various structures would make the Fog Garden a mega project that would provide a path-breaking solution, that has been used from times immemorial, to be used in a large-scale enabling a dry desert to be able to produce water from fog. The term ‘Mega’ is very apt for this project as it is intended to bring about a revolution in the way in which we can produce potable drinking water by using fog that produces pure and sweet dew.
Eco Credentials
The Atacama Desert is the driest place in the world and it has a history of never receiving any rainfall at all. However, the Fog Garden is an innovative and unique method wherein the dry Atacama Desert would turn into a water generating land would be a path-breaking innovation and a solution to many other dry areas in Africa and other countries where water is a sheer scarcity. The method of water collection is very simple and is also very clean as various complex shaped structures would be erected along a stretch called the Fog Garden that would actually tap the fog for deriving dew which would be used as clean drinking water. This would provide potable drinking water to places where water is scarce and people have to travel for hours on end to get water that is not even drinkable. Furthermore, the Fog Garden would be like an oasis as it would not only produce sufficient water for maintaining the garden but would also be able to support a village with sufficient water! It would be very pleasant to see a beautiful oasis in the middle of the Atacama Desert. The procedure for generating water out of fog would be done in a manner that requires no energy wastage, hence no emissions. This clean method of generating potable drinking water can be practiced all over the world and would be extremely beneficial to the poorer nations.
