Design and construction of fog harvester.

Abstract

Despite its natural resources and its enormous surface and underground water potential, Uganda is still struggling to implementation for the supply of safe drinking water for even the urban population. Many initiatives to supply these communities through the national water distribution network has remained fruitless. A very high number of people in rural areas risk their health by consuming unsafe water relying on available polluted water sources. This study therefore aims at designing and constructing a fog harvester that could help in availing safe drinking water to these same rural communities. Two districts were selected according to their elevation, which was above 2000m above sea level that supports fog formation and collection. The potential of harvesting water was investigated over Mbale and Kasese districts in Uganda. Daily air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed were also used. Parameters including atmospheric water vapor pressure, saturated vapor pressure and the absolute and relative humidity of the atmosphere were derived and monthly trend variations in fog water harvesting in the two districts developed. Mbale district was selected due to its potential, accessibility and economic implication to the researcher. After considerable site selection criteria, Wanale Sub County was selected as a pilot site for testing the performance of the designed fog harvester, which later indicated that it is a promising new technology. It is an integrated, manageable and sustainable water collection system. The system collected approximately a maximum of 2.0 L/m2 of mesh area per day. A water quality test done revealed that the water was safe enough for drinking. An estimate of implementation cost of Ugx 363700 is provided as part of the discussion on the feasibility of using fog water harvesting as low-cost approaches to securing safe drinking water in Uganda.