Water plays a vital role in shaping the future of humanity. In a world growing drier by the year, every drop matters, and people are urgently exploring new water sources. Is there still a corner of the planet where water has not been found yet?
More than 70 percent of the globe is covered by water, amounting to a vast reservoir of about 1.386 billion cubic kilometers. With so much water around, why do large regions face thirst and sometimes catastrophic scarcity?
The paradox lies in the fact that fresh water represents only about 2.5 percent of all water, and much of that is hard to reach. About 68.7 percent is locked in ice, while roughly 30 percent is groundwater that lies deep underground.
Only around 1.2 percent exists as surface water, distributed across permafrost regions (69 percent), lakes (20 percent), rivers (0.49 percent), and moisture in soil, air, and living beings. All living things rely on this precious surface water in varying amounts. In the Canary Islands, the natural cycle provides a vivid example of how delicate this balance can be.
As the world population climbs, demand for water rises for agriculture, industry, electricity, and household use. A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that water demand will accelerate by 2050 relative to the start of the century, reaching a significantly higher share of usage across sectors.
There is, however, another answer to the question of rising water needs: undiscovered sources where water can be tapped. Fog, simply a cloud with tiny suspended droplets, offers one such possibility.
Useful for drinking
The LIFE Nieblas project, co-financed by the European Union, has over the last four years supported three innovative systems to capture water from fog in Spain. These methods aim to provide affordable, efficient fog extraction for drinking water and other uses.
Water harvested from fog proves useful for reforestation and irrigation, and some systems were even used to produce a drinkable water product known as Nieblagua. The broader aim is to secure water for public supply, restore degraded landscapes, and diversify water resources across Mediterranean climates in times of drought and agricultural need.
Years of research and testing in the Canary Islands have produced results shared by the main partners of LIFE Nieblas. CREAF, the Canarian public company GESPLAN, ICIA, ITC, and Cabildo Gran Canaria have helped advance a suite of fog-capture technologies. The current goal is to extend these approaches throughout the peninsula.
Three distinct fog-capture systems were developed, using different materials and methods to harvest more than 500 liters of water per square meter in ten months in some trials.
In total, about 35,000 liters have been collected with 27 collectors of various designs by mid-2023, with plans to reach around 215,000 liters as the project continues toward completion.
Pattern, Canary pine leaves
Researchers also explored simpler, highly effective setups to help tree plantations survive dry summers. These innovations have potential applications across other Spanish and Portuguese regions. Catalonia is currently exploring feasibility as part of the broader initiative.
Canary pine leaves inspired a key idea for the Nieblas project. The leaves naturally trap microdroplets of fog, a concept turned into the most efficient rain collector known as the needle collector. This compact, easy-to-assemble device uses crossbars with metal threads resembling pine needles and, in tests on the Canary Islands, fifteen structures covering about 9 square meters captured up to 525 liters per meter squared over ten months.
Two larger models were also tested: tower collectors featuring two cover styles, kiwi mesh and volumetric mesh. One variant of the volumetric mesh captured as much as 379 liters per square meter. These are not prototypes; they are ready-to-market builds designed for areas where fog and wind meet the conditions for water capture, according to CREAF researchers and LIFE Nieblas scientific advisor Vicenç Carabassa.
The project also trialed a simpler unit designed to support reforestation and agricultural plantations. A single tubular collector surrounds cultivated trees to shield them from grazing animals, ensuring continued growth even in challenging conditions.
Catalonia’s potential
Using the same kiwi mesh as the tower collectors, this basic structure efficiently traps fog water, keeps trees moist, and helps safeguard new growth from grazing pressure.
The cost of conventional water transport to restore degraded lands can be extremely high, with estimates often reaching tens of thousands of euros per live tree. The Nieblas initiative is testing whether simpler, more economical solutions can be effective across Mediterranean zones and beyond. In collaboration with the RESTARC project, about one hundred individual collectors were set up to support reforestation with native species such as wild olive and Mastic gum in restored quarry sites near Garraf.
Catalonia could be a potential place to extract water from fog in the broader region
Beyond fog collection, a group of specialists assessed soil regeneration, field sensor networks, irrigation systems, and meteorology to understand long-term restoration and water management. The effort involved a wide range of institutions and landowners in Spain and Portugal, with collaborators including universities and regional environmental bodies. The aim of these activities was to build knowledge that can guide future restoration and water resource strategies across similar climates. The Nieblas project highlights how fog harvesting can contribute to sustainable water supply, forest restoration, and agricultural resilience in arid and semi-arid regions. The insights from this work are shared through formal presentations and published findings from partner institutions and supporting agencies. The Nieblas program has generated practical data and design guidelines for communities considering fog-based water capture as part of their broader water strategy. These efforts are attributed to the LIFE Nieblas initiative in collaboration with CREAF, GESPLAN, ICIA, ITC, and Cabildo Gran Canaria, and are discussed in public program documents and official project reports. (Sources: LIFE Nieblas project reports and partner institutions) Please refer to official project materials for detailed results and case studies.
Note: The Nieblas project emphasizes knowledge sharing and practical implementation. Local authorities and researchers continue to explore how fog harvesting can complement traditional water supply systems while supporting ecological restoration and sustainable land management. The broader lesson is clear: innovative, low-cost technologies can expand water resources, even in regions with challenging climates. (Attribution: LIFE Nieblas, CREAF, GESPLAN, ICIA, ITC, Cabildo Gran Canaria)