Holly Jonas’ Post

💧 Access to clean water is one of the biggest social-environmental justice issues in Lima. Enter "fog catchers", which are harnessing the city's unique microclimate for good. 🌬 ⛰ The capital of Peru already receives less than an inch of rain each year and this is declining further with the effects of climate breakdown. An estimated two million of Lima's 10 million residents do not have access to the municipal water network, including many internally displaced people forced to leave worsening farming conditions in rural areas. Folks in low-income urban areas are often grappling with multiple intersecting forms of injustice and trying to eke out a living with razor-thin margins for error. 💡 Peruvian Abel Cruz saw Lima's infamous near-constant shroud of fog as an opportunity. With his nonprofit organisation El Movimiento Peruanos sin Agua ("Peruvians without Water Movement"), he innovated on different "fog catcher" models to harness water from the air for families to bathe, clean, drink or grow small gardens. So far, the organisation has helped install 2,000 fog catchers across Peru, including 600 in Lima. A few months ago, they reportedly signed an agreement with the Lima's Mayor to install 10,000 more in the surrounding hills. 📲 Learn more about this inspiring initiative in "The Backyard Farmers Who Grow Food With Fog", a multimedia story by journalists Peter Yeung and Melanie Pérez Arias for Reasons to be Cheerful: https://lnkd.in/d-ggKsgv -------- This story is part of Waterline, an ongoing series "exploring the intersection of water, climate and food, told through the eyes of the people impacted by these issues" with the support of the Walton Family Foundation. To read more stories like this, sign up for Reasons to Be Cheerful's newsletter: https://lnkd.in/d55SGF3R. To learn more about the right to water in international law, check out the United Nations' fact sheet: https://lnkd.in/dW6RKyuj, co-published by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) World Health Organization #mondaymotivation #solutionsjournalism #water #peru #climatejustice