The project mentioned in our last newsletter – the construction of a double panel large fog collector and the renovation of an adjacent greenhouse in Tojquia, Guatemala, has now been completed.  FogQuest volunteers Pablo Osses and Tony Makepeace helped guide the volunteer effort of the townspeople who constructed the project in late January. 

FogQuest has been working with the people in the village of Tojquia, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, since 2006. It is an ongoing project to utilize large fog collectors to provide water for the needs of the people on their farms during the dry winter season. Together we have constructed 40 large fog collectors along with the installation of plastic water tanks to store the water. This has been a very successful project and a demonstration of the long-term viability of fog collection projects when they are conducted with the cooperation of the villagers. These fog collectors provide about 8000 L per day of fog water to the families during the winter season when rain is largely absent.

The collectors and the greenhouse are located next to the local schoolhouse. The water supply from the new fog collectors will be used to irrigate a vegetable garden in the renovated greenhouse as well as supply the water needs of the school.   The schoolteacher and students assisted in the completion of the project.

We thank the Cloud Appreciation Society for their support of this project, as well as Rotary International.  The Guatemalan firm TOCOSA provided valuable assistance with supplies and logistics. We also thank our our donors and members for their continued support.

Here’s a gallery of the new and completed fog collectors recently  installed as a project expansion in Tojquia, Guatemala.  Thanks to Nicolas Zanetta for these images.

 

 

 

We keep in regular contact with the people in the village of Tojquia, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, where we have worked since 2006. The 35 large fog collectors, each with an area of 40 square meters, have provided a valuable water resource in the dry season for the villagers. Last year we identified five homes for the next stage of the project and installed new water tanks at the homes.

This year we will build five new Large Fog Collectors for these homes. The work will take place in September with the construction guided by Nicolas Zanetta from Chile, with the actual work being done by the people of the village. Two other FogQuest volunteers from Canada will participate and help with a variety of additional tasks. We hope to have a daily blog from the site during the two-week period in the field. If you can help support this project, we would greatly appreciate your donations.

 

This project has been ongoing successfully since 2006. There are 35 large fog collectors (LFCs) that FogQuest and the villagers of Tojquia have built in the high mountains of Western Guatemala. Each of the LFCs has a surface area of 40 square meters and produces an average of about 200 L of water a day during the winter dry season.

In December 2016 Nicolas Zanetta, a FogQuest volunteer from Chile, visited the site to assess the status of the fog collectors and to meet with the villagers and members of the village water committee. This committee was established a year ago to coordinate the use of the fog collectors and to collect a small fee from the users to use in the maintenance of the fog collectors. The family income in the community is only about one dollar US a day, so the collection of funds from the community is a significant commitment.

Nicolas found that all 35 collectors were in good condition with no major problems. Eight of the collectors needed minor maintenance to their troughs or the mesh. Funding from FogQuest donors was available to buy four new water tanks each of 1000 L capacity. The tanks were installed at four homes to collect rain water during the wet season. They will be moved to receive water from fog collectors when new ones are built for the families. It was the water committee that decided which families would receive the new tanks and this was based on the work they had contributed to the project in previous years; however, the entire community had to agree to the location of the tanks before they were installed.

A major change that Nicolas noted during his visit was the greater involvement of young people in the community in the fog collection project. This is the 12th year of the project and they are gradually taking over leadership and maintenance from their parents.

Before Nicolas left Tojquia, the community organized a celebration for what was achieved during the past year, the success of the water committee fund, the new beneficiaries, and a new visit from FogQuest to the community. As Nicolas says “It was a lunch where it was possible to share a pleasant afternoon with the whole community and one which provided an opportunity to strengthen trust and commitments.”

We are very fortunate to have a new and vigorous young volunteer from Chile. Nicolás Zanetta Colombo, is a geographer from the Centro del Desierto de Aatacama of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He traveled to Guatemala to work at the FogQuest village fog-water collection project in Tojquia in early September.

His main tasks were to interact with the people of the village through group meetings and personal discussions in order to establish their views on the status of the water project and also to assist with some needed repairs to seven of the large fog collectors. The 35 LFCs have now been providing water for 10 years since their construction in 2006 and some of the mesh required replacement or repair. The LFCs produce an average of about 7000 L of fog water a day during the dry season when there is no rain. This water is provided directly to individual homes and farms.

The families remain very grateful to FogQuest for the project and one of the major benefits is the time saved by the families by not having to walk big distances looking for water in the dry season. There is a general motivation within the community to organize in order to maximize the benefits. After the meetings with Nicolás a water committee was organized and endorsed by the families in the village.

Their ideas on how to advance will be reported back to FogQuest and we will continue to work with them in the year to come. There are many social and technical tasks still to undertake but the village needs and the benefits of the water are both very real.