BY LAUREN GILBERT
Lauren Gilbert is a second-year Conflict Management student at SAIS. Her passion is water security and sustainable development, particularly in rural areas—she has worked on these issues in Bolivia and Ethiopia.
Figure 1: Cloud-fishers on Mt. Boutmezguida, Morocco (aqualonis 2019)
The predawn fog slips through the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco, winds its way up the slope, passes silently through the tightly woven nets, and leaves hints of precipitation in the mesh fibers of the man-made structures. In this barren landscape of Western Morocco, the droplet forming in the net is the vanguard of a new era.
Figure 2: Map of Morocco (aqualonis 2019)
Locals call the process “cloud-fishing”—a relatively low-cost technology used to capture the tiny water particles trapped inside clouds and turn them into a reliable water source for drought-stricken regions. Areas like Morocco’s Mount Boutmezguida, where fog appears to shroud the mountains constantly, are prime candidates for this new technology. The communities in the area are largely Berbers, an ethnic group in North Africa who maintain traditional lifestyles and practice subsistence agriculture. Their dependence on the land means the Berbers in Western Morocco are particularly vulnerable to the toll of climate change, as the desert area grows and the underground water supply dewindles. As more wells run dry, locals are forced to expand their search for water, often resorting to unclean sources. Pressure to migrate out of the water-scarce area is only compounded by local poverty levels.[1]
Cloud-fishing technology, designed and implemented jointly by aqualonis,[2] a German fog net company, and Dar Si Hmad,[3] a Moroccan NGO which serves low-resource communities, responds directly to these challenges. The low-cost nets require little startup capital, nor do they need extensive lifetime maintenance. As the wind pushes fog over the mountains, three-dimensional mesh nets capture the tiny water particles trapped inside the clouds. Gravity systems then allow water to be piped directly into households. No energy is needed to capture nor transport the water. Once they are installed, the nets can withstand high winds while providing high-quality drinking water directly from the cloud source.
The installation in Morocco took over a year, and involved placing water piping and constructing fog netting. Throughout the year-long process in Boutmezguida, aqualonis and Dar Si Hmad employed local workers, teaching them construction and management skills needed for installation and maintance. As of 2017, 31 fog nets harvest, on average, 6,000 liters of water per day.[4] From there, the water enters an irrigation pipe system which carries the water downhill 26 kilometers, servicing 16 surrounding villages and their 1600 residents.[5] The project managers installed five cisterns, shown in Figure 3 below, to ensure adequate water supply during the dry season.
Figure 3: Map of Cloud-fishing, water storage, and pipe system (aqualonis 2019)
Communities surrounding Mount Boutmezguida welcomed the idea of cloud-fishing, largely because their livelihoods depend on agricultural production. With fickle water supply in the past, the soil quality eroded and plants died of thirst; thus, these communities often resorted to hand-dug wells and meager rainwater-catching methods. In this remote area, the government provided neither water services, nor storage infrastructure; instead, households often had to purchase water from private companies—at sometimes usurious costs—to supplement their collection from local wells.
The technology not only holds implications for the health and security of the local communities, but additionally disrupts long-held traditional gender roles as well. Until this technology arrived, Berber women shouldered the burden of water collection. They left their young children at home every day to walk four to five hours across the rugged terrain to find water sources.[6] Older girls often assisted in the collection process, which interrupted their schooling.
However, the installation and operation of this project has called on both local men and women alike to participate, and ultimately to benefit, equally. Women have become active participants in the project, taking on roles that traditional gender norms previously barred them from—for example, women manage the systems by sending community SMS updates regarding water availability. Additionally, because they no longer are required to spend hours searching for, collecting, and transporting water back to their families, women have regained significant time in their daily schedules to engage in other pursuits—younger women now have more time to devote to their schoolwork.
The project’s success also lies in the implementation of a tiered payment structure for the new service. After requiring support from outside organizations, such as the German BMZ and USAID agencies, for the initial investment, the project is on its way to becoming self-sustaining. The tiered payment structure works as follows: each user is guaranteed one cubic meter of water, piped into their homes every year at the set price of four euro cents per liter.[7] Any additional water is billed at a higher price per liter since it is assumedly being used for profit-earning ventures, such as agriculture. Users pay for water with a prepaid charge card which they can swipe near the pump.
Per aqualonis and Dar Si Hmad, customers appear satisfied with the tiered payment system and understand the “pay more when you use more” rationale. Given the context of increased drought cycles, rain scarcity, and low aquifer recharge rates, the community and the providers alike see cloud-fishing as an environmentally sustainable solution to water scarcity in these arid places.[8]
But the Mount Boutmezguida project faces one potential challenge: contamination in the pipe system. The water delivery system works without the need for treatment because cloud-fishing functions as a closed system—the water is taken directly from the clouds, moves into pipes, and is then delivered to homes. As long as there are no leaks, this system is effective.
However, any ruptures in the sealed system could allow contaminates to enter the piped water, which, without a treatment system in place, could contaminate households’ water supply. Disease contraction may lead people to question the safety of the system altogether—thus, the perceived associated risks stand to derail community trust in the technology and render it obsolete. The Moroccan government could potentially mitigate this risk by providing the funding to outfit the systems with low-cost filtration systems. However, given the previous lack of public service provision in the area, it is unlikely that the project will see significant governmental support anytime soon.
As cloud-fishing technology provides a potential solution to water scarcity, questions of scaling it are certainly salient. However, only certain geographies have the necessary combination of features to be viable cloud-fishing sites—the area must include “a cold sea current, an anticyclone weather system, and a land obstacle.”[9] In layperson’s terms, the technology requires both a large body of water and a mountain range, a combination often only occurring in arid coastal stretches; before the installation, project architects must run tests to ensure that the climate is appropriate for the system to function adequately. The existence of both ensures adequate fog generation that does not dissipate too quickly, which enables nets to properly capture water particles. Cloud-fishing projects are currently underway in viable locations across the globe, from Peru to California to Tanzania.
By proxy, the fog brings more than just water to these populations—it brings hope. It brings the promise of better crops and, in turn, reliable sources for food and income. It challenges gender norms and educates the next generation on the importance of climate resilience and preservation of precious natural resources. However, these effects rely on communities trusting in and assuming responsibility for the cloud-fishing projects—in Morocco and beyond. Without it, the projects will never see sustainable success. Yet with it, lives are changed for the better. Smiling, one Berber community member announced, “most importantly, I now have time to think about myself and about my future.”[10]
[1] (Hicks 2016).
[2] (aqualonis 2019).
[3] (Dar Si Hmad 2019).
[4] (Benzaken 2019).
[5] (aqualonis 2019).
[6] (Hicks 2016).
[7] (aqualonis 2019).
[8] (Dar Si Hmad 2019).
[9] (Cardi 2018).
[10] (aqualonis 2019).
References
aqualonis. 2019. Morocco. https://www.aqualonis.com/morocco.
Benzaken, Hilla. 2019. Why Is This Organization Catching Fog in the Desert? March 22. https://www.goodnet.org/articles/this-organization-catching-fog-in-desert.
Cardi, Valeria. 2018. The fog catchers conjuring water out of Moroccan mist. May 16. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-fog-water-feature/the-fog-catchers-conjuring-water-out-of-moroccan-mist-idUSKCN1II01M.
Collyns, Dan. 2012. Peru's fog catchers net water supplies. September 19. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/sep/19/peru-fog-catchers-water-supplies.
Dar Si Hmad. 2019. A Ground-Breaking Project: Harvesting Water From Fog. http://darsihmad.org/fog/.
Grillo, Emma. 2018. These Nets Harness Water From Fog. November 1. http://nymag.com/developing/2018/11/morocco-mount-boutmezguida-nets-harness-water-from-fog.html.
Hicks, Celeste. 2016. 'Cloud fishing' reels in precious water for villagers in rural Morocco. December 26. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/dec/26/cloud-fishing-reels-in-precious-water-villagers-rural-morocco-dar-si-hmad.
Rosman, Rebecca. 2018. These Moroccans are turning foggy days into a solution to their water crisis. March 29. https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-03-29/these-moroccans-are-turning-foggy-days-solution-their-water-crisis.
Sadiqi, Fatima. 1997. "The place of Berber in Morocco." International Journal of the Sociology of Language 7-22.
Photo Credit: Free use image from Canva Pro.