Amid the hilly desert landscape to the south of Lima, a project is under way to establish 1000 "fog-catchers" to collect up to 400,000 litres of water per day and supply the poverty-stricken people living there.
The Peruvians Without Water Movement on Sunday set up the first three fog-catchers, devices that collect the water from the fog that regularly covers the Peruvian capital, particularly in winter.
They will channel it into reservoirs so it can be used for human consumption and irrigating small agricultural plots.
The systems were installed at the Humano Villa Lourdes Ecologica settlement, a poverty-stricken neighbourhood in the Villa Maria del Triunfo district in southern Lima, the second-largest city in the world - after Cairo - located in a desert zone.
"One hundred to 200 fog-catchers will be placed in this community," said Peruvians Without Water president Abel Cruz.
"The final goal is to have 1000 functioning with their reservoirs and tanks, which will allow us to be able to capture between 200,000 and 400,000 litres of water per day."
This project will open up "a range of opportunities for these families in extreme poverty to be able to have water and drainage," and also for them to be able to work small farm plots.
Villa Lourdes Ecologica general secretary Pablo Lliuya said water was expensive for the local residents and filling a small reservoir costs up to 40 soles (about $A17) every 15 days, when the monthly cost in other parts of the city with potable water networks was much lower.
"Thank God, (the group) is helping cover the costs. With this project we're spending less, we're really helping 500 families" who live in the area, he said.
The promoters of the project are getting help from private companies and the first three "fog-catchers" set up on Sunday were sponsored by Walter Geiger, an Austrian who works in the United States, and his son Lukas Geiger.
The Peruvians Without Water Movement is working on several projects to provide water to local residents.
Its aim is for the families who are benefiting to become self-sufficient in vegetables, fruit and spices, to save money on buying water from April to November and to make extra income by selling their farm products.
The movement began working with "fog-catchers" in Lima in 2010, but it was not until 2012 that it got the financing to set up 20 of the systems in the Los Tunales neighbourhood.
