Uzbekistan Signs Deal With Israeli Water-From-Air Firm To Fight Water Shortage

Israel-based water generator firm Watergen signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Uzbekistan this week “in an effort aimed at harnessing and using the company’s patented technology to make pure, clean drinking water out of ambient air,” the parties announced in a statement.

The agreement was signed on Tuesday by Ibrohim Abdurakhmonov,
Uzbekistan’s minister of innovation, and Michael Rutman, Watergen’s vice president of marketing and sales.  

Thousands of Gen-M atmospheric water generators (AWGs) produced by the Israeli company will be dispatched to different towns and cities in the country facing water shortages, according to the MOU.

The Gen-M weighs 780 kilograms and can make as much as 800 liters of water per day, according to the company. Each unit contains an internal water treatment system and needs no infrastructure except a source of electricity to operate in its location.

Uzbekistan has been in need of a secure water supply, especially since it is one of two countries in the entire world that is doubly landlocked.

As a result, Uzbekistan has relied on the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers for freshwater. In recent years, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have insisted on making hydro-power dams at the headwaters for both rivers, undermining Uzbekistan’s ability to use both rivers as freshwater sources.

Founded in 2009, Watergen develops and manufactures a number of water generators including the GEN-350 model, a medium-scale atmospheric water generator which produces up to 600 liters of clean water per day, the large-scale Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG), and the Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV), which transports Watergen units in emergency situations and natural disasters. Earlier this year, Watergen also rolled out the “Genny,” an at-home water generator capable of producing between 25-30 liters (6.6-7.9 gallons) of water per day.

Watergen says its technology will drastically change the water consumption industry. The heat-exchange GENius tech contained in each of their generators creates water by cooling collected air at its dew point. The water goes through physical, chemical, and biological treatment followed by a mineralization process to maintain its cleanliness, tastiness and healthy quality.

Watergen’s technology, in the form of its Gen-M generator, was showcased at Uzbekistan’s Innoweek 2019 exhibition at the Uzexpocentre National Exhibition Complex in Tashkent.

“We are giving the people of Uzbekistan a very safe and simple alternative for dealing with a very difficult problem they are facing. Our technology offers the people of Uzbekistan a method to acquire freshwater on a daily basis,” said Rutman at the exhibition.

The Gen-M had a successful pilot last May at an orphanage housing 120 orphans in Bukhara.

“Uzbekistan’s water utility company was thrilled with our water-from-air solution and requested to run pilots in several other regions of Uzbekistan, said Watergen president Dr. Michael Mirilashvili, in a statement.

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