From fog to drinking water

The sky is tangerine, almost red that day in the Anti-Atlas. On the way that leads us to the Aït Baamrane region, we meet fine figures, often veiled, with sometimes children, and sometimes a mule. In the distance, mountain peaks are visible; just after, the pre-Sahara begins. In this semi-arid country where rains are rare and irregular, rainfall barely reaches an eighth of the national average. It is not much. Very few. Here, moreover, in the village of Agni Hya where we are stopping, women have taken turns for centuries to fetch water. A long journey, without interruption and repeated up to three times a day.

So, in 2015, when the Dar Si Hmad association set its first guidelines and announced an exploration of the other side to study this meteorological phenomenon, the inhabitants witnesses remained waiting. It must be said that for them, fog is much more than an object of study. In fact, it would even be an object of worship made up of multiple beliefs and inherited myths. In a country where drought is endemic, the arrival of fog is bound to be an event that stirs fears, relieves consciences and crystallizes fantasies. And, no doubt, indifference is never appropriate when, covered by a gray heap, the village you know, gradually and in a few hours, becomes invisible.

It is during this very particular season, when the anticyclone in the Azores and the cold current in the Canary Islands create evaporation and pressure towards the mountains, that the scientific teams set off for the summits. On the edge of this natural barrier, the fog collection units at Dar Si Hmad are particularly well positioned. Several tests were necessary before finding this ideal location. Now, thanks to the wind that pushes it, the fog passes through large nets, condenses, and falls into a container placed under the installation.

Drop by drop, the quantity of water becomes substantial and thanks to gravity, the water descends from Boutmezguida to the two storage tanks. The water will cross a total of nearly seven kilometers in the main pipe, then continue its way to the secondary pipes to connect the villages. And so, after only four years of research, the inhabitants of Agni Hya will be equipped with a network of drinking water pipes.

A revolutionary technique? Yes, for sure. A Moroccan invention? Not really. According to Jamila Bargach, an anthropologist and executive director of the association, the technique is a centuries-old heritage. Vicky Marzol, Spanish climatologist and co-founding partner of the project, demonstrated how this technique was used by the indigenous people of the Canary Islands who collected fog water from the large foliage on which the droplets condensed and slipped to fall into holes dug under these trees.

“We are only taking up, improving and adapting on a large scale a technique that ancient peoples already used” describes the anthropologist. However, at this scale of deployment, the Fisher Cloud solution marks a turning point by being considered today as the largest fog capture project in the world.

By making possible access to drinking water and the empowerment of four hundred inhabitants in the Sidi Ifni region, the teams of Dar Si Hmad, chaired by Aissa Derhem, demonstrate the vitality and the advantages of interdisciplinary research to overcome a societal problem. “We developed this system to help extremely poor Berber communities. Dependent on climatic hazards, and increasingly impoverished by the drying up of groundwater, it was necessary to find an integrated and local solution, capable of thinking about the collection and redistribution of a resource necessary for life” testifies Jamila Bargach.

Established in 2006, then deployed in several units in 2009, the nets have been operational since 2016. They continue to be improved thanks to academic research and the financial contributions of Moroccan promotion agencies and Moroccan donors. Several external partners also support the project such as the Embassy of Finland, the American Global Greengrants Foundation or the German Munich Re Foundation. Today, communities pay a symbolic contribution that covers the expenses of maintaining the nets. And the association is developing water education programs to better manage this vital resource.