Watergen, an Israeli company specializing in water generation technology, has installed one of its machines at the Office of Papal Charities in Vatican City. This machine, which produces clean drinking water from the air, will provide Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and his team with a sustainable source of water on-site.
Watergen in the Vatican (Photo courtesy Watergen)
The installation of the Watergen machine at the Office of Papal Charities reflects a shared commitment to addressing global water scarcity. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, who leads the office with a focus on humanitarian aid, will benefit from this new water source, which aligns with the office’s mission to support vulnerable communities.
Watergen, under the leadership of its owner and President, Dr. Michael Mirilashvili, has actively pursued its mission to ensure global access to drinkable water. The company has donated its water-generating machines to crisis regions, including Syria. In collaboration with the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees (MFA), Watergen provided an atmospheric water generator to a Syrian medical facility, addressing urgent needs for clean water amid the ongoing civil war.
Watergen pioneered a patented technology for cost-effective, low-energy production of clean drinking water from air. The process involves pulling in air, chilling it to extract humidity, and then transforming the resultant water into drinkable water using a series of filters. The technology, which relies on a plastic heat exchanger and proprietary software, has been deployed in over 60 countries, including regions with inadequate water infrastructure such as India and Uzbekistan, as well as drought-stricken areas in developed nations like California.
This development underscores the potential for innovative technology to contribute to sustainable practices and address water-related challenges worldwide.
The Miracle of Water from Air Conceived inside an IDF Tank
Watergen was founded in 2009 by Israeli entrepreneur and former combat reconnaissance commander Arye Kohavi. Yehuda Kaploun, president of Watergen USA, explained the necessity that led Kohavi to invent the device.
“Kohavi was sitting in a tank sweating and wanted to drink some water,” Kaploun explained. “He didn’t understand why, if there was so much humidity in the air in the tank, why did he have to go out and risk being shot just to get a drink.”
After his army service, Kohavi developed his patented system and as per this initial vision, the company focused on providing water supply solutions for military purposes.
An Israeli Success Story
The company was acquired in 2016 by Michael Mirilashvili, a Russian-Israeli billionaire and vice president of the World Jewish Congress. Recognizing that 2.1 billion people around the world lack access to clean water, Mirilashvili shifted the company’s focus to combatting the growing problem of water scarcity and answering the needs of civilians following natural disasters.
True to their mission, Watergen sent four water generators to Texas and Florida in 2017 in the aftermaths of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, respectively, working with the American Red Cross and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to provide clean and safe drinking water. In November 2018, Watergen provided its atmospheric mobile water generator known as a GEN-350, to rescue responders in California during the devastating Camp Fire in Butte County.
The company’s goodwill seems endless and in 2019, they installed a water generator in an orphanage in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Watergen also is sending 10 GEN-350 units to Brazil for installation in schools and hospitals in locations with little access to safe drinking water. That year they also donated a Watergen atmospheric water generator to the Greater Flint Holy Temple in Flint, Michigan. The Greater Holy Temple became a main water distribution site in January 2016 in response to the Flint water crisis.
The system, named GENius, pulls outside air into the car, filters out all pollutants, cools the clean air to its dew point — the temperature at which condensation occurs – and sends it through a multistage filtering process that removes any remaining impurities and adds essential minerals to the water, which is then stored in an internal reservoir and kept fresh through constant circulation.
Kaploun emphasized that an additional benefit of the Watergen system was a reduction of plastic waste. It is also energy-efficient, producing one gallon of water using 1 Kilowatt of energy. Other atmospheric water generating devices, by comparison, consume three to four times more energy, making Watergen a more attractive solution for financially strapped users.
Watergen has units for large-scale production of water, small units for domestic use supplying an average of 15 liters of drinking water a day, medium-sized devices for institutions that produce 450 liters a day, larger units that produce 3,000 liters daily, and an emergency response vehicle which securely transports units to emergencies and natural disasters.
