In the hills of Lima, the NGO Peruanos Sin Agua is rolling out and innovative water system: fog nets that capture airborne moisture.

Water is life – and for the people of Lima, water is a social and political issue too. The desert city’s water resources are limited, and access to clean water is stratified by class and location. Creative solutions are necessary. Photographer Alessandro Cinque Alessandro Cinque documents one innovative method: fog nets that capture airborne moisture, which – when condensed into water – can be stored and used for irrigation and drinking. 

Drone view of Barrio Villa Maria del Triunfo.

Invasions of Lima’s urban areas have several stages. In the first, people illegally occupy land by setting up camping tents. After the first few weeks have passed, if they are not cleared by the police, they start building wooden houses. You can see from the photo that this invasion has been going on for at least 5 years, as people have invested money to optimise their homes.
In Lima, a 3-meter-high concrete barrier segregates the city according to class lines, but also divides those who have access to water and those who don’t. People living in the encroachments pay 10 times more for water than people with more economic recourse.
View of the barrio after installation of the fog nets. Villa Maria del Triunfo has a population of about 430,000. About 21.5 percent of the population lives in poverty and extreme poverty, according to the latest official Peruvian government data.
Portrait of Abel Cruz. He is originally from Cusco but emigrated from the Andes to Lima. When he was young, water was the luxury he most desired, which is why he founded his NGO. Every time he arrives at a new place to install fog nets, he looks for funds to buy the materials and organise the training of locals so they can place the nets and maintain them.
On installation day, the atmosphere is festive, as community members think of the water savings this system will enable.
A woman transports a net that will soon be installed. For many people there is hope that these nets will represent meaningful financial savings.
Community members install a net at one site. Each net takes about 2 hours to install.

According to Abel Cruz, the project’s founding engineer, fog nets offer numerous advantages: the system doesn’t require large financial outlays, lasts up to five years, and is immediately operational. Each net captures the gaseous water from dew, condenses it, and, once liquid, passes through gutters to be stored in large tanks for domestic use.

Of course, fog is essential to the success of fog nets. In winter, fog is present every day in the deserted hills of Lima, which is why the system works best between April and September. In summer, fog nets are uninstalled and stored in the community to prevent deterioration in sunlight.

The system improves household economies. Using water from fog nets, Mercedes Huamani Mitma has managed to create an urban vegetable garden in her home where she produces fruits and vegetables.

“Where there is water, there is life,” she says.