Israeli technology to help solve India’s water shortage
The partnership announcement coincided with the arrival to Israel of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his accompanying business delegation.
By SHARON UDASINUpdated: JULY 6, 2017 02:04Shiv Vikram Khemka, vice chairman of the SUN Group (left) signs memorandum of understanding in Tel Aviv on Tuesday with Maxim Pasik, executive chairman of Water-Gen.(photo credit: WATER-GEN)
An Israeli company that affordably extracts water from thin air signed a memorandum of understanding to bring its proprietary technology to India.Rishon Lezion based Water-Gen and India’s SUN Group announced their collaboration in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, agreeing that the latter will be responsible for distributing the former’s technology in the Indian market. The partners are focusing on providing a potable water solution to the Indian military, official institutions and government agencies in particular, according to the memorandum.The partnership announcement coincided with the arrival to Israel of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his accompanying business delegation – among whose members is the vice chairman of the SUN Group, Shiv Vikram Khemka. The signing took place at an event held by the Manufacturers Association of Israel.“We are a business company, but our vision is a humanitarian one,” said Water-Gen executive chairman Maxim Pasik. “In the 21st century, there is no reason for any society to suffer shortage of water.”The agreement with the SUN Group is one of many recent such collaborations cemented by Water-Gen around the world. Most recently, the Miami suburb of Miami Gardens announced that it would launch a pilot program using the company’s system.Water-Gen’s technology first made waves at the AIPAC Policy conference in Washington at the end of March, when Prof. Alan Dershowitz presented the company’s device on stage and pulled water out of the air. Trapping humid air on-demand, the device cleans and dries the air and extracts clean water.The company claims to offer a far more affordable option than other systems that have tried to extract water from air, as the heat exchanger in the device is made from plastic rather than from aluminum. Generating 1 gallon (3.79 liters) of water requires only 1 kW of energy, according to the firm.Water-Gen’s system is available in three sizes: a small home appliance, a medium-scale model and an industrial water generator with a capacity of up to 6,000 liters of water per day.The company stressed the importance of bringing its solution to India, which is the second-most populous country in the world and suffers from a chronic water shortage. In rural areas, where 74% of the population resides, only about 21% of the people have access to good sanitation and only 84% benefit from a regular water supply, the firm said. In urban areas, where the situation is better, just 54% of residents have access to good sanitation and 96% enjoy a regular water supply, the company said.Globally, more than a million children under the age of five die every year from diseases related to water shortages or water contamination, added Pasik.“In this sense, the technology Water-Gen has developed is a humanitarian one, and we see it as a moral obligation to distribute it as much as possible where it is needed,” he said. “It is no secret that there is a need for technology like Water-Gen’s in India, and this is why we are so happy about the memorandum of understanding signed yesterday between us and an Indian company sharing this vision.”
