There has been a shortage of drinking water in the densely populated Gaza Strip, but a new Israeli project is helping to reduce the shortage with the process of solar power to extract drinking water from the air.
Ironically, the project is the brainchild of Russian – Israeli billionaire Michael Mirilashvili, who works in the Palestinian enclave, which has been blocked by Israel since the Hamas terrorist group took control there in 2007.
A Gazan man fills a bottle with drinking water drawn from the air using Watergen technology
(Photo: AFP)
The company he heads, Watergen, has developed atmospheric water generators that deliver 5,000 to 6,000 liters (1,300 to more than 1,500 gallons) of drinking water per day, depending on air humidity.
With only a few machines operating in Gaza, Watergen is far from meeting the demand for the two million people living in the tidal plateau between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
“However, this is just the beginning,” said Fathi Sheikh Khalil, an engineer with the Palestine civil society group Damour, which is working on one of the machines with which Israeli companies cannot operate in Gaza.
The Strip, marred by bad economic sentiment and constant power shortages, has also been suffering a water crisis for years.
The unused whiskey is reduced by salt water contamination and contaminated with pollutants, making most of the water salty and dangerous to drink and removing water in bottles.
Only three per cent of Gaza’s own water meets international standards, according to the United Nations, which predicted in 2012 that ecological pressure would make Gaza “inaccessible”. ”Before this time.
Multiple studies have linked increased rates of kidney stones and high incidence of diarrhea in Gaza to substandard water consumption.
A number of players are working to address the water shortage, including the European Union, which supports a seawater dewatering plant.
Watergen’s offices are housed in a glass tower in Tel Aviv, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Gaza.
Head of Watergen, Michael Mirilashvili
(Photo: AFP)
Mirilashvili bought Watergen after moving to Israel in 2009, and since then the company has exported its devices to more than 80 countries.
The company’s CEO and president have a colorful personal history, including time he spent in a Russian prison following a conviction for eviction in a lawsuit later found flawed by the European Court of Justice.
A religious jewel with a picture of an Orthodox rabbit visible on the wall of his office, Mirilashvili told AFP that when he learned about the Gaza water crisis, he wanted immediate help.
“Our goal was for everyone on Earth to get drinking water … It was immediately clear that we had to help our neighbors first.”
Israel is tightly controlling imports to Gaza and Mirilashvili acknowledged that it took time for his instruments to agree.
The Israeli military “liked the idea, but they had to inspect the equipment,” he said.
Watergen’s technology responds to Gaza because it runs on solar panels, an asset in circulation where the only power plant, which needs to import fuel, is unable to meet demand.
Mirilashvili lamented that he would not see his machines working, for the Israelis are forbidden to enter the Strip.
Watergen has donated two machines, costing $ 61,000 per head, to Gaza.
Boy drinking water from a tap in Gaza
(Photo: AFP)
A third device was sent to the strip by the Arava Institute for Environmental Research, based on a kibbutz in southern Israel.
One of the devices, a metal cube that runs while running, is located at the town hall in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.
After trapping moisture, the machine compresses it into water and then filters it into drinkable water immediately.
When the air humidity level is above 65 percent, Watergen machines can extract about 5,000 liters of drinking water per day, said Khalil from the Palestine group Damour.
An additional 1,000 liters can be produced when the humidity level exceeds 90 percent.
Some of the water is drunk by town hall staff and some is transported to a local hospital for patients with kidney problems, Khalil said.
“One or two devices will not change anything,” he told AFP. But “it shows that there is a solution.”
Watergen’s solar-powered plants are being used in Gaza to extract drinking water from the air
(Photo: AFP)
When asked about working with an Israeli-based company, which has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008, Khalil said: “We will take help from anyone who wants to help us.”
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mirilashvili said he did not think Gazans saw Watergen as a gift from him, a conscious Israeli and Jewish citizen.
“They understood that this miracle is not mine,” he said.
“This is a gift from God. They understood that when God gives you something, you have to accept it.”