Israeli Innovation

Israeli firm extracts water from air in Florida

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Large parts of Florida are suffering from severe drought, and hurricane season threatens to make things worse.

Enter Water-Gen, an Israeli company whose technology captures humidity to extract drinking water from the air.

Miami Gardens said it was launching a pilot program with the company to address its water problems — the first U.S. city to do so.

“As representatives responsible for the quality of life and safety of our communities, preparedness and readiness to counter crises is mandatory,” said the south Florida mayor, Oliver Gilbert III.

Over the next two weeks, Miami Gardens will use a midsized Water-Gen generator to produce drinking water for its residents. Water-Gen officials said they hope the pilot leads to contracts with Miami Gardens and other parts of Florida. The company’s largest generator yields as much as 825 gallons of water per day for only 10 cents a gallon, mostly in energy costs, according to the company.

Florida gets much of its drinking water from the Floridian Aquifer and Biscayne Aquifer, as well as from surface water from Lake Okeechobee and other lakes, but population increases have strained available sources. Because of the drought, Miami-Dade County has put restrictions on water use.

Water-Gen’s ambitions extend beyond Florida and the United States. Earlier this year, the company signed deals, together worth $150 million, to produce drinking water in India and Vietnam, two countries that have long faced shortages. About 1.2 billion people, nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, live in areas of water scarcity, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Owned by Russian-Israeli entrepreneur and billionaire Michael Mirilashvili, the vice president of the World Jewish Congress, Water-Gen has Jewish friends in high places. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned it in an interview last December with CBS’s “60 Minutes” about Israel’s high-tech prowess. In March, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz demonstrated the technology on stage at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference in Washington.

Dershowitz touted the technology as a way to counter worldwide water scarcity and the BDS movement against Israel.

“There is no weapon more powerful in the fight against BDS than for Israel to develop technologies that the world cannot live without,” he told the crowd. “You cannot boycott products that you can’t live without.”