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Russian-Israeli businessman Michael Mirilashvili, owner of Watergen, a company that developed a machine that transforms moisture in the air into drinking water, speaks to AFP at its offices in the Israeli city of Petah Tikva, on November 17, 2020. The densely populated Gaza Strip has long lacked sufficient drinking water, but a new Watergreen project helps alleviate the shortage with a solar-powered process to extract drinking water directly from the air. Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP
GAZA CITY – The densely populated Gaza Strip has long lacked sufficient drinking water, but a new project is helping alleviate the shortage with a solar-powered process to extract drinking water directly from the air.
Unusually, the project operating in the Islamist-run Palestinian enclave, which has been blocked by Israel since 2007, is the brainchild of a Russian-Israeli billionaire, Michael Mirilashvili.
The company he runs, Watergen, has developed atmospheric water generators that can produce 5,000 to 6,000 liters (1,300 to more than 1,500 gallons) of drinking water per day, depending on the humidity of the air.
With only a few machines operating in Gaza, Watergen is far from meeting the demand of the two million people who live in the crowded coastal enclave between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
“But it is a start,” said Fathi Sheikh Khalil, an engineer with the Palestinian civil society group Damour, which operates one of the machines because Israeli companies cannot work in Gaza.
The strip, plagued by severe economic problems and regular power outages, has also faced a worsening water crisis for years.
Its overused aquifer has been degraded by salty water intrusion and polluted by pollutants, making most of the available water salty and dangerous to drink and forcing the importation of bottled water.
Just three percent of Gaza’s water meets international standards, according to the United Nations, which in 2012 predicted that ecological pressures would have made Gaza “uninhabitable” by now.
Multiple studies have linked the rising kidney stone rates and high incidence of diarrhea in Gaza with sub-standard water consumption.
Several actors are working to solve the water shortage, including the European Union, which is supporting a massive seawater desalination plant.
‘Help our neighbors’
Watergen’s offices are located in a glass tower in Tel Aviv, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Gaza.
Mirilashvili bought Watergen after moving to Israel in 2009, and since then the company has exported its machines to more than 80 countries.
The company’s CEO and president has a colorful personal history, including the time he spent in a Russian prison following a conviction for kidnapping in a trial that the European Court of Justice found to be flawed.
Mirilashvili, a religious Jew with a photo of a prominent Orthodox rabbi on his office wall, told AFP that when he heard about the Gaza water crisis, he immediately wanted to help.
“Our goal was that everyone on Earth could have clean water … It was immediately clear that we first had to help our neighbors.”
Israel strictly controls imports into Gaza and Mirilashvili acknowledged that getting its machines approved “took some time.”
The Israeli army “liked the idea, but needed to review the equipment,” he said.
Watergen’s technology is suitable for Gaza because it is powered by solar panels, an asset in the enclave where the only power plant, which requires imported fuel, lacks the capacity to meet demand.
Mirilashvili regretted that he cannot see his machines in operation, as Israelis are prohibited from entering the strip.
‘Gift from God’
Watergen has donated two machines, which cost $ 61,000 each, to Gaza.
The Arava Institute for Environmental Research sent a third machine to the strip, based on a kibbutz in southern Israel.
One of the machines, a metal cube that roars as it runs, is located in Khan Yunis city hall in southern Gaza.
After capturing the moisture, the machine condenses it into water and then filters it into potable water instantly.
When the humidity level in the air is above 65 percent, Watergen’s machines can produce about 5,000 liters of drinking water per day, said Khalil of the Palestinian group Damour.
An additional 1,000 liters can be produced when the humidity level exceeds 90 percent.
Some of the water is consumed by city hall employees and some is transported to a local hospital for patients with kidney problems, Khalil said.
“One or two machines will not change anything,” he told AFP. But “it shows that there is a solution.”
When asked about working with an Israel-based company, which has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008, Khalil said: “We accept help from anyone who wants to help us.”
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mirilashvili said he did not believe that Gazans viewed Watergen as a gift from him, an Israeli citizen and an observant Jew.
“They understood that this miracle is not mine,” he told AFP.
“This is a gift from God. They understood that when God gives you something, you must accept it. “
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