Category Archives: Latest News

Latest News

Revised and updated FogQuest field guide available soon!

 

After several years of development the revised and updated 2017 FogQuest Fogwater Collection Manual  will be available soon as an e-book, printed book or PDF.

This comprehensive guide will prepare any individual, group, or NGO for fog collection projects in the field.  Based on many years of research and experience, the manual discusses and details the scientific, climatic and social conditions needed to complete successful fog collection projects internationally.

We will send out a notice when the guide is available for purchase.  Stay tuned!

Guatemala, Latest News

FogQuest Project in Tojquia Guatemala – Update May 2017

 

This project has been ongoing successfully since 2006. There are 35 large fog collectors (LFCs) that FogQuest and the villagers of Tojquia have built in the high mountains of Western Guatemala. Each of the LFCs has a surface area of 40 square meters and produces an average of about 200 L of water a day during the winter dry season.

In December 2016 Nicolas Zanetta, a FogQuest volunteer from Chile, visited the site to assess the status of the fog collectors and to meet with the villagers and members of the village water committee. This committee was established a year ago to coordinate the use of the fog collectors and to collect a small fee from the users to use in the maintenance of the fog collectors. The family income in the community is only about one dollar US a day, so the collection of funds from the community is a significant commitment.

Nicolas found that all 35 collectors were in good condition with no major problems. Eight of the collectors needed minor maintenance to their troughs or the mesh. Funding from FogQuest donors was available to buy four new water tanks each of 1000 L capacity. The tanks were installed at four homes to collect rain water during the wet season. They will be moved to receive water from fog collectors when new ones are built for the families. It was the water committee that decided which families would receive the new tanks and this was based on the work they had contributed to the project in previous years; however, the entire community had to agree to the location of the tanks before they were installed.

A major change that Nicolas noted during his visit was the greater involvement of young people in the community in the fog collection project. This is the 12th year of the project and they are gradually taking over leadership and maintenance from their parents.

Before Nicolas left Tojquia, the community organized a celebration for what was achieved during the past year, the success of the water committee fund, the new beneficiaries, and a new visit from FogQuest to the community. As Nicolas says “It was a lunch where it was possible to share a pleasant afternoon with the whole community and one which provided an opportunity to strengthen trust and commitments.”

Latest News, Nepal

New projects May 2017 – Nepal

 

FogQuest is providing technical and material assistance to a team from Engineers Without Borders (student chapter, University of Colorado) who will set up four SFC’s in the Kalinchowk region on Nepal, an area that was badly damaged by the earthquakes of two years ago and is in need of water.

The Canadian NGO, Nepal Community Development Foundation is also assisting.  A small team will depart from the U.S. this month and will spend two months in the region.  We will post any updates and news we receive on our web site and in further editions of our newsletter.

Latest News

January 2017 News summary

Below are a few news items that we’ve sent out on our newsletter and posted on our Facebook page over the past few months.

7th International Conference on Fog,
Fog Collection, and Dew
Wroclaw, Poland 24 to 29 July, 2016

A very successful conference was held this summer in Poland, with about 125 delegates from about 30 countries attending. This is the seventh in a conference series that was started by Dr. Robert Schemenauer, the Executive Director of FogQuest, in 1998. The conference is not operated or sponsored by FogQuest but we endorse the efforts to enrich the knowledge base that can lead to successful uses of fog and dew as water supplies and to demonstrate to scientists working in the atmospheric sciences, as well as hydrology and related sciences, that there are important practical applications to their work.

Two papers were presented (see below) describing ongoing projects of FogQuest. One discussed the project in Tojquia, Guatemala from 2006 to 2016. The other discussed the fog collection projects in Nepal from 1997 to 2016. Dr. Robert Schemenauer attended the conference* as a representative of FogQuest and made a 15 minute presentation on the work in Nepal. Mr. Nicolas Zanetta from Chile represented both the Atacama Desert Center in Chile where he works and FogQuest where he is an important volunteer. Nicolas gave a one minute introduction to the work in Tojquia and interacted with the delegates at the associated poster paper.

The conference was a wonderful opportunity to exchange information and to meet colleagues from diverse backgrounds working in all parts of the world. It was also an opportunity to meet old friends. Pablo Osses went to Nepal almost 20 years ago to install the first small Standard Fog Collectors and to train local groups on the construction of Large Fog Collectors. He is now a Professor at the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago. Nicolas Zanetta is a young man who brings experience and great enthusiasm to our present project in Guatemala and this week will go to our new evaluation project in Nicaragua.

(*Dr. Schemenauer paid personally for his travel to Poland for the conference and Mr. Zanetta’s funds came from other sources. No donations to FogQuest were used for travel.)

Conference Papers Available for Download
7th International Conference on Fog,
Fog Collection, and Dew
Wroclaw, Poland 24 to 29 July, 2016

The two conference papers presented on FogQuest work in Guatemala and in Nepal can be downloaded below. The entire conference proceedings volume is also available for download here.

2016    Schemenauer, R.S., B. Bignell and T. Makepeace: Fog Collection Projects in Nepal: 1997 to 2016. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Fog, Fog Collection and Dew, Wroclaw, Poland 24 – 29 July 2016, pp 187-190.

2016      Schemenauer, R.S., N. Zanetta, M. Rosato and V. Carter: The Tojquia, Guatemala Fog Collection Project 2006 to 2016. 7th International Conference on Fog, Fog Collection and Dew, Wroclaw, Poland 24 – 29 July 2016, pp 210-213.

Broadview Avenue Public School
Fundraising Event

FogQuest received a very generous donation from the Broadview Avenue Public School located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The school put on a fundraising event earlier in the year. The theme was clouds, fog and raindrops. Our thanks to a teacher, Ms. Darlene Morrow, who initiated the event and all of the students who worked so hard to raise the funds. We will use the donation to help with our ongoing project in Tojquia, Guatemala.

Latest News, Nepal

Update on Nepal project

The Silauti SFC project has run for six months. The past three months have been very dry but cold weather and have reduced the overall yield to approximately 4.5 litres/meter/day as an average. The data has been split into wet and dry seasons and we can see that the winter, while there’s abundant fog, is not getting the yields that we were seeing in the transitional seasons and summer. Winter data is about 1 litre/day per square meter.

The monitoring equipment has not only been able to survive the location’s climate and conditions, it’s also been recording the data without incident over the past six months.

The data shows an average collection rate of 4 to 5 litres/meter/day. Placement of the collector and the presence of turbulence from the trees on the downward side of the ridge may be factors in the overall results.

The SFC has now been moved to a saddle ridge on the nearby military base for the next six months. This location is 2km from the temple at Silauti and we’re expecting to be able to compare results from the two locations over a full dry and wet season. The ridge is crisscrossed by alternating prevailing winds that bring large, dense banks of fog into the area. The altitude at the new location is similar to the temple at just under 2800m.

Our next newsletter will have more updates on this pilot project

Latest News

Revised & updated operations manual – coming soon!

Screen Shot 2015-12-23 at 2.16.26 PMWe are currently finishing the revised and updated operations manual for 2016 – it will be available for sale on our web site in the next few weeks.

The manual provides detailed information on how to select a site for a fog collection project, information on involving communities, construction guidelines for both small and large fog collectors, as well as background information on scientific, meteorological and geographical factors relevant to the fog collection process.

The entire manual – or specific sections – may be printed in B&W or full colour.

Guatemala, Latest News

Latest News from Guatemala

We are very fortunate to have a new and vigorous young volunteer from Chile. Nicolás Zanetta Colombo, is a geographer from the Centro del Desierto de Aatacama of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He traveled to Guatemala to work at the FogQuest village fog-water collection project in Tojquia in early September.

His main tasks were to interact with the people of the village through group meetings and personal discussions in order to establish their views on the status of the water project and also to assist with some needed repairs to seven of the large fog collectors. The 35 LFCs have now been providing water for 10 years since their construction in 2006 and some of the mesh required replacement or repair. The LFCs produce an average of about 7000 L of fog water a day during the dry season when there is no rain. This water is provided directly to individual homes and farms.

The families remain very grateful to FogQuest for the project and one of the major benefits is the time saved by the families by not having to walk big distances looking for water in the dry season. There is a general motivation within the community to organize in order to maximize the benefits. After the meetings with Nicolás a water committee was organized and endorsed by the families in the village.

Their ideas on how to advance will be reported back to FogQuest and we will continue to work with them in the year to come. There are many social and technical tasks still to undertake but the village needs and the benefits of the water are both very real.

Latest News, Nepal

New Data Logger being tested

This watertight case contains the circuit boards that generate the data stream. It is also Bluetooth enabled, allowing the observer to access the data without having to open it and retrieve a data card.
This watertight case contains the circuit boards that generate the data stream. It is also Bluetooth enabled, allowing the observer to access the data without having to open it and retrieve a data card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to determine how much water has been collected by a Standard Fog Collector, or indeed any fog collector, one needs a regular record of the water produced. The low cost way to do this is to have an observer measure the amount of water in a container each day. This has advantages and disadvantages. It is something that is discussed in our manual. In locations where it is safe to put instrumentation out with the SFC we have used various measurement techniques over the years. There is always a trade-off between performance and cost. We need low cost and durable data loggers.

The automated data collector is powered by this solar panel. This remarkable and efficient solar panel is courtesy of Voltaic Systems: (www.voltaicsystems.com).
The automated data collector is powered by this solar panel. This remarkable and efficient solar panel is courtesy of Voltaic Systems: (www.voltaicsystems.com).

Byron Bignell, who recently returned from Nepal (as noted below) the spent considerable time and effort developing a new data logging system. We are presently testing this in Nepal and in Kamloops, British Columbia. When we have some definitive results we will present them on this website and in our newsletter.

The single fog collector (SFC) can be seen here temporarily placed on its side to enable access to the top frame bar. The solar panel is mounted at the top of the unit.
The single fog collector (SFC) can be seen here temporarily placed on its side to enable access to the top frame bar. The solar panel is mounted at the top of the unit.
The new and complete assembly can be seen here.
The new and complete assembly can be seen here.