Fog Nets Yield 10 Liters of Water Daily in Chile's Atacama Desert

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Scientists in Chile have found a simple way to pull water from fog in one of Earth's driest places.

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The city of 140,000 people sits in the Atacama Desert, where some areas see less than 4 mm of rain yearly.

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The city relies on underground aquifers that haven't been replenished by rainfall for nearly 10,000 years.

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The fog, called "camanchaca" or darkness by local people, appears from May through October.

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This water arrives by truck to many neighborhoods, making it expensive and unreliable.

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Beyond drinking water, the collected fog could water public parks and support food production.

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One square meter of fog collection could help grow more than 15 kilograms of leafy greens yearly.

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This could provide fresh local food in an area where growing crops is usually impossible.

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