[mdp2021]

No, I think the quotation meant: «Chile has been investigating fog capture since the 1950s [...] [BUT] earlier attempts to turn the mist into usable water failed [UNTIL, (e.g.)] in 1990 fog nets at Chungungo, a fishing village north of Los Tomes, captured 8,000 litres a day. Villagers argued about how to share responsibility for maintaining the atrapanieblas».

They started attempting to obtain water from fog in the '50s, until in the '90s the first working atrapanieblas were successfully deployed. "The villagers regarded it as a collective critical success and conversely a common responsibility".