LIMA, 10 Aug 2021:
The “Wall of Shame” which separates the impoverished Pamplona Alta suburb from the opulence of the Las Casuarinas neighbourhood in Peru’s capital city Lima, has turned into a source of water for families living in extreme poverty.
The controversial wall, 10km-long and 3m-tall, was built to prevent the poverty-stricken settlements from advancing into the wealthy neighbourhood of Surco, and has become one of the most iconic images to represent inequality in Latin America.
On one side of the wall lie some of Lima’s most luxurious homes while human settlements live in extreme poverty and with no water supply on the other side.
But thanks to an initiative by NGO Movimiento Peruanos Sin Agua – which designed an ingenious system of “fog catchers” along the wall – the concrete barrier is turning into something more than just a wall of shame.
“The idea is to take advantage of the wall, which separates the rich from the poor, so that it can be useful (…) We are giving free and drinkable water from the sky,” said industrial engineer Abel Cruz, president of the NGO Movimiento Peruanos Sin Agua.
The 23 fog catchers along the wall capture the humidity that covers the hills of southern Lima on winter mornings – by collecting and condensing the air-lade moisture, which is liquefied into water and poured through gutters to be stored in large tanks.
Each of the fog catchers use two poles that support a 20 sqm nylon mesh with small holes. These nets, which can be purchased at a hardware store, collect between 200 and 400 litres of water per day, said Cruz.
On days of dense fog, up to 9,000 litres of water can be collected, which supplies some 40 families in the village.
The method is practical, simple and inexpensive, explained Cruz, who came up with the idea 20 years ago when he left his native region of Cusco and came to Lima, where he lived in a human settlement deprived of water.
The lack of access to water affects more than half a million people in the Peruvian capital, which is the second largest desert city in the world, only behind Cairo.
Justina Flores, resident on the poor side of the wall, would have to pay some 30 soles (US$7.50) to fill a 1,100 litre tank of water. It would last her family of four just about one week.
But thanks to the fog catchers, Flores no longer needs to rely on the “aguatero,” the water truck, that sometimes cannot reach the houses at the top of the hill.
Now, the 49-year-old woman only has to climb some 20 steps to reach the tanks of water where she can take bucketfuls that will last her family much longer.
The Movimiento Peruanos Sin Agua began working with fog catchers in different parts of Lima in 2010, even though it only received funding for it in 2012.
Although the first steps were taken in the capital, with the support of national and international foundations, the group has already managed to place thousands of fog catchers in other areas of the country, such as the southern regions of Arequipa and Ica, which also suffer from lack of water supply.
– EFE