MIT researcher Shreerang Chhatre and associates have developed new ways to use “fog harvesting” to provide water to the world’s poor.

A fog-harvesting device consists of a fence-like mesh p anel, which attracts droplets, connected to receptacles into which water drips. To build larger fog harvesters, researchers generally use mesh, rather than a solid surface, because a completely impermeable object creates wind currents that will drag water droplets away from it.

In some field tests, fog harvesters have captured one liter of water (roughly a quart) per one square meter of mesh, per day. Chhatre is conducting laboratory tests to improve the water collection ability of existing meshes.