Niebla en el futuro del agua potable en Chile

One of the two 17 square metre fog-catchers that harvest water for producing Atrapaniebla beer. The three main parts of the fog catcher are a structure with mesh, a gutter and a tank to store the water.

Miguel Ángel Carcuro

Each month the Carcuro brothers, owners of the Atrapaniebla microbrewery, produce 1,000 litres of this ale. They mainly supply the beer to the cities closest to Peña Blanca, where the beer is made. 

Marco Carcuro

The tiny water droplets in fog naturally condense on vegetation. In a fog catcher the process is similar: droplets make contact with the mesh fibres where they join into bigger drops, flow down into a gutter and drain through collection tubes.

Daniel Rojas’ collection

Fray Jorge National Park is located just 60 kilometres north of Peña Blanca. It is a unique forest in the middle of a semi-arid zone. Fog is vital to this ecosystem, which plays host to 266 endemic Chilean species.

Richard LeBoeuf

Marco Salinas (left), former electrical engineering student, and professor Richard LeBoeuf (right), both from University of the Andes in Chile, work on the ‘Fog Finder System’ in Peña Blanca. The probe is part of a network of sensors aimed at finding the best locations to site fog catchers.

Jorge Gómez

Electrical engineer Jorge Gómez from University of the Andes is part of Richard LeBoeuf’s team. “Hopefully this probe will be installed by the end of the year”, he says.

Marco Salinas

The scientists also are testing different meshes in small fog catchers to find out which performs best. Here, Marco Salinas from the University of the Andes installs instrumentation that will measure the velocity of the wind and the water content in fog.  

Jorge Gómez

The Peña Blanca community has 12 fog catchers measuring 9 square metres that provide 2,000 litres of water each month. This is being used for reforesting the Cerro Grande hill. Soon they will install 10 more fog catchers.

Daniel Rojas’ collection

The Peña Blanca Fog Study Centre is named after professor Pilar Cereceda, one of the pioneers of the technology. “She has been our guide. Her support and her knowledge have been really important for us,” says Daniel Rojas, president of the community.

Daniel Rojas’ collection

The Peña Blanca community has environmental programmes with schools from the region. It built a shelter on the hill to provide workshops and 2 kilometres of marked tracks and viewpoints.

Daniel Rojas’ collection

The largest fog catcher belonging to Chile’s Catholic University is located in Majada Blanca. It is 150 square metres in area. The university’s Atacama Desert Centre has six more experimental catchers at research stations across the north of Chile.

Richard LeBoeuf