Water scarcity has become a serious problem in many places worldwide. Lima, the capital city of Peru, faces the same water shortages due to inadequate rainfall. German conservationists and biologists Kai Tiedemann and Anne Lummerich came up with an ingenious solution to Peruvian village Bellavista’s water problem. Though Lima has very little rainfall but extremely thick fog sweeps in from the Pacific Ocean, so the duo set up fog catchers to harvest hundreds of gallons of water a day right out of the air.

The fog catcher has mesh netting positioned vertical to the prevailing wind, which captures and collects water when fog sweeps through it. When water particles become too heavy to hang in the mesh, drops of fog-water fall into gutters that carry the water to storage tanks. The fog catcher proves to be quite profitable for the villagers who otherwise have to get water piped from far-flung locations. This water many a times is not available easily and if it is, it’s still difficult for the villagers to acquire it due to its high cost.466761