Assessment of fog-water collection on the eastern escarpment of Eritrea

ABSTRACT

Fog can be considered a potential water resource for certain semi-arid and arid countries. In Eritrea, a fog-water collection project was implemented in 2007 in the villages of Arborobue and Nefasit. This study presents an assessment of the project after five years of implementation and identifies the main strengths to be technical viability, since it is simple and manageable by communities, and reasonable in areas where conventional water delivery systems are not feasible. The main limitations are that it is not economically viable unless its initial cost is subsidized; moreover, fog capture is seasonal, and net damage occurs during strong winds.

KEYWORDS:

• Fog-water
• large fog collector
• socio-economics of fog-water collection
• Eritrea

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge financial and material support from SLM-CDE and the University of Bern, Switzerland, in undertaking this study. The authors thank Vision Eritrea, WasserStiftung (Germany) and FogQuest (Canada) for valuable information. We are grateful to Zoba Maekel Administration, Water Resources Department and beneficiary communities for their direct collaboration. We also greatly acknowledge the comments of the anonymous external reviewers and the editor-in-chief.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the SLM-CDE and the University of Bern, Switzerland.