One of the driest places in the world is Chile’s Atacama Desert. It receives less than a millimeter of rainfall […]

Outside of a handful of valleys in Antarctica, the Atacama is the driest place on Earth. The inhospitable landscape of sand, bare rock, and salt flats is so extreme and otherworldly that it’s used as a proxy for Mars by researchers.

Scientists have proposed an unlikely solution to water scarcity in one of the driest places on the planet: fog. By harvesting moisture from the air, they argue, we could provide vulnerable communities in Chile’s Atacama desert with much-needed water.

Fog harvesting may provide a crucial water source for people living in some of the planet’s driest regions. By capturing moisture from passing fog, this technique gathers droplets and channels them into storage, potentially easing shortages for those who have little or no connection to traditional water infrastructures.

It's not a one-stop solution to water shortages, but it could help supplement other harvesting and conservation methods.

In a nutshell Scientists discovered that fog collection could provide up to 10 liters of water per square meter daily in areas surrounding Alto Hospicio, Chile, enough to help supply the city’s 10,000 informal settlement residents who currently rely on water truck deliveries.