Morocco’s Fog Harvesting Project Wins UN Momentum for Change Award

A Moroccan fog water collection project won the 2016 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Momentum for Change Award, local media reported.

The fog harvesting project was initiated by Dar Si Hmad, a woman-led NGO, as a solution to water scarcity in some of the most isolated, rural communities in the Anti-Atlas mountain range.

Dar Si Hmad designed and installed what is now “the world’s largest operational fog water harvesting system”, the UNFCCC said in a statement.

“It is an innovative solution to persistent water stress where fog is abundant, a technique inspired from ancient water practices,” the UNFCCC added.

The water is collected from the fog through a series of tall steel poles, hung with rectangular black polymer nets. These are the fog harvesters which can in twenty-four hours, collect up to seventeen gallons of water—condensed fog from the nearby Atlantic—per square yard of netting.

The prize awarding ceremony and a series of special events will be held during the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, in November 1-18.