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Fog harvesting could provide water for arid cities
By Victoria Gill
01 Capturing water from fog—___ a large scale—could provide some of the driest cities in the
02 world ___ drinking water. This is what researchers in Chile have concluded after studying the
03 potential of fog harvesting in the desert city of Alto Hospicio in the north of the country. The
04 average rainfall in the region is less than 0.19in (5mm) per year. Lead researcher Dr. Virginia
05 Carter Gamberini, ___ Universidad Mayor, says that ___ Alto Hospicio there is a lot of poverty,
06 and a large number of people there have no direct access to the networks that supply clean
07 water. Many who live in the city's poorest communities rely on drinking water that is delivered
08 by truck. However, researchers say that clouds of fog that regularly gather over the mountain
09 city are an untapped source.
10 Capturing fog water is remarkably simple—a mesh* is hung between poles, and when the
11 moisture-laden clouds pass through that fine mesh, droplets form. The water is then channeled
12 into pipes and storage tanks. It has been used at a small scale for several decades, mainly in
13 rural South and Central America—in places with the right foggy conditions. One of the biggest
14 fog water harvesting systems is in Morocco, on the edge of the Sahara Desert. However,
15 Dr. Carter says a “new era” of much larger-scale fog harvesting could provide a more secure
16 and sustainable supply of water in urban environments where it is most needed.
17 She and her colleagues carried out assessments of how much water can be produced by fog
18 harvesting and combined that information with studies of cloud formation in satellite images and
19 with weather forecasts. From this, they concluded that the clouds that regularly form over the
20 Pacific—and are blown across the coastal mountain city—could provide the people of Alto
21 Hospicio's slums with a sustainable source of drinking water. They published their findings in a
22 paper in the journal Frontiers of Environmental Science.
23 Alto Hospicio's fog forms over the Pacific Ocean—when warm, moist air flows over cold
24 water—and is then blown over the mountains. The reliably foggy conditions there allowed
25 Dr. Carter and her colleagues to pinpoint areas where the largest volumes of water could be
26 harvested regularly from the clouds. Based on an annual average water collection rate of
27 2.5 liters per square meter of mesh per day, the researchers worked out:
28 – 17,000 sq m of mesh could produce enough water to meet the weekly water demand of
29 300,000 liters that is currently delivered by truck to urban slums;
30 – 110 sq m could meet the annual demand for the irrigation of the city's green spaces;
31 – Fog water could be used for soil-free (hydroponic) agriculture, with yields of 33 to 44lb
32 (15 to 20kg) of green vegetables in a month.
33 Alto Hospicio is on the edge of the Atacama Desert—one of the driest places on Earth. With
34 little to no precipitation, the main water source of cities in the region is underground aquifers—
35 rock layers that contain water-filled spaces—that were last refilled thousands of years ago. With
36 urban populations growing, and demand on those water supplies from mining and industry, the
37 scientists say there is an urgent need for other sustainable sources of clean water. Dr. Gamberini
38 explained that Chile is “very special” for its sea fog, “because we have the ocean along the whole
39 country and we have the mountains”. Her team is currently working on a “fog harvesting map”
40 of the whole country. “Water from the clouds”, as Dr. Carter describes it, could, she said,
41 “enhance our cities' resilience to climate change, while improving access to clean water”.
*mesh: (a piece of) material like a net with spaces in it, made from wire, plastic, or thread. (Available at:https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/mesh) (Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgw317p/9po - text specially adapted for this test).
Which of the alternatives below is NOT an example of a passive voice structure?
It has been used at a small scale for several decades.
One of the biggest fog water harvesting systems is in Morocco.
A mesh is hung between poles.
Drinking water that is delivered by truck.
The water is then channeled into pipes.