Ethiopia – Debark 2010
Fog Collection Evaluation Project
Update – February 2010
The assistance from local agencies and villages has been excellent and the fences around the SFCs will be paid for and constructed by the villages. The members of the community Association in Dabat are convinced that fog collection will work there and are motivated to help in any way. We are told that the fog season runs from late May to early January. So this is the dry season. There is certainly a serious need for water evident in Debark and Dabat to the north of Gondar..
Presently in Ethiopia we have:
– 3 SFCs installed near Debark at altitudes up to 3300 m
– 1 SFC installed near Dabat at 2600 m
– 2 more SFCs will go in at Dabat very soon
– 2 SFCs are installed at the monastery site south of Addis Ababa at about 2800 m
A Standard Fog Collector (SFC) has a collection area of 1 square meter.
So far the progress has been good and Ernst Gschwind and Baerbel Scheu did excellent work in difficult conditions. The evaluation period will continue for the rest of this year to gain an understanding of fog collection and rainfall in the mountains of Northern Ethiopia and to assess the amounts of water that can be provided to communities there.
Update – January 2010
FogQuest is working with p(e)d-world, an NGO based near Heidelberg, in Germany, on a fog-water project for villages in northern Ethiopia. There are currently (January 2010) two volunteers from Munich in Ethiopia and they will stay for three months to get the evaluation project underway. Together with p(e)d-world, we will choose three or four locations for measurements of fog collection rates. The work will be done between Gondar and Debark and will focus on providing water to small communities with very limited water availability in the dry season.
Currently, water problems are being made more severe by a multi-year drought that has gripped the region. We are very fortunate to be able to work with good local partners, the Gondar Water Supply Office in Gondar and MS Consultancy in Addis Ababa, and to have been in contact with the Amhara Regional Govenment Water Resources Bureau. All of these organizations have been interested and cooperative during the initial stages. This will be the introduction of the fog collection technology to the country and there is a real potential to provide clean water to many villages in the mountainous interior of Ethiopia.
Donations to FogQuest can be directed specifically for this project and we would be grateful for your support.
Approximate location this project.
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