Collecting water in arid regions.

COUNTRYSIDE: In the March/April issue, Jamie Jackson asked how the water was collected in the arid region of South America.

Here's what I know of it (can't remember where the info is from, maybe from the book, Gaviotas?): That area (Chile?) gets fog/air moisture, but scant rain. They use a mesh curtain system. Dew collection might not work for the mesh curtain system. (The tarp idea is designed for dew collection, and that can even be used in the desert.)

Netting plastic (a small-medium mesh) can be suspended like curtains from rod frames. The lower edges are fixed over a trough (this can be a split PVC pipe, or whatever one can scavenge that will keep the water fairly potable). The water mists and fog collect on the netting similarly to the way pine needles collect it, and it drips down into the trough.

From there, you might want to have it gravity flow through a sand filter, and into a cistern (great cistern information in the last issue, too!). It is pretty simple.

Just a caution: watch out for wind tearing down your mesh--if the mesh is too fine it will act like a sail. You want enough mesh to catch water, but coarse enough to let the wind blow through. Hope this helps!--C. Holmes, [e-mail]