Feasibility of fog water collection: a case study from Oman

The aim of this study was to assess different fog collectors in certain jabal (i.e. mountainous) areas in the Dhofar Region of the Sultanate of Oman which experience fog resulting from the Indian monsoons. A further aim was to provide fog collectors in the close vicinity of houses in the mountains to directly meet the needs of the local residents. Experiments were conducted using three fog collectors with different mesh materials namely; air conditioner filter (AC; 6 m × 2.8 m), green shade mesh (12 m × 3 m), and aluminum shade mesh (12 m × 3 m). The collectors were constructed close to the point of use. This reduced the costs as the installation of pipelines would not be needed to deliver the water. The results showed that all fog collectors proved to be very effective in fog water collection. Among all of them, the AC filter proved to be the most effective. The total fog water collected during the period of 77 days by AC filter, green shade mesh, and aluminum shade mesh was 995, 880, and 753 L/m², respectively. This paper concludes with a set of recommendations for further in depth assessment of the qualitative and quantitative aspects of this water collection technology.