An Israeli company is helping America’s disaster victims and first responders
Watergen sends Israeli water-making machine to assist massive wildfires.
Abigail Klein Leichman
An emergency response vehicle (ERV) carrying an innovative Israeli machine that pulls pure drinking water directly out of ambient air is on its way to California, to provide hydration to police and firefighters dealing with the aftermath of two massive wildfires that have taken at least 87 lives and destroyed over 10,000 homes and businesses.
The vehicle and the GEN-350 atmospheric water generator were sent by Watergen USA, the American subsidiary of the Israeli company that invented the system.
“The chairman of our company in Israel believes very strongly in humanitarian efforts to assist those who have lost everything in California,” said Yehuda Kaploun, president of Watergen USA. Company CEO Ed Russo pointed out that aid workers can serve for longer periods of time if they have adequate drinking water. He also noted that the GEN-350 reduces the number of plastic bottles needed in disaster areas, and the number of vehicles required to haul bottled drinking water to parched survivors and rescue workers.
The 1,760-pound (800-kilogram) Watergen GEN-350 can produce up to 155 gallons (600 liters) of water per day from the air. The unit has an internal water-treatment system and needs no infrastructure to operate except electricity, which is supplied from a generator and charging stations on the ERV.
Watergen USA has launched a Go Fund Me campaign to bring an additional ERV and a GEN-350 to California. Contributions will help bring water and hope to numerous disaster victims.
The water-from-air miracle underscores the global leadership role that innovative Israeli companies have played in recent decades – from drip irrigation systems that conserve water and turn deserts into fruit and vegetable gardens … to systems that recycle household “gray” water into irrigation water for crops … to desalination systems that convert Mediterranean Sea water into 90% of all the water Israelis now drink, while also providing drinking water to Palestinian and Jordanian areas.
Watergen USA’s ERV previously brought a GEN-350 unit to Florida following Hurricane Michael in October. The company partnered there with World Central Kitchen, an organization of chefs working to fight hunger and poverty, to prepare food for hurricane victims.
“Watergen USA was pleased to partner with world-class chefs to assist in the rescue efforts to provide people with gourmet meals using the world’s best chefs and using the world’s best water,” said Kaploun.
California first responders and residents hope this new partnership with Watergen will make things a little better in fire and flood-devastated areas.
When it comes to Israel, everybody in this comment sections thinks they can do it better and cheaper. But they never do, do they? Israel, again, comes to the rescue because Israel DID IT!
So many commenters on this page they this can be done better and cheaper, no big deal. But none of did it because they can’t! Israel DID IT!
Israel has been surviving on the razors edge.
You’ve heard the saying “hit back twice as hard”, they hit back 10 times as hard and have really competent intelligence agents.
You mean like operation Wrath of God revenge for the Munich massacre when a team of Mossad agents shot and killed Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter unrelated to the Munich attack and Black September, mistakenly identified Bouchiki as Salameh.
After five unsuccessful attempts, Mossad had assassinated Salameh.
However, the blast also killed four innocent bystanders,
including a British student and a German nun, and injured 18 other people in the vicinity.
Those that act make mistakes and those that act more make many more mistakes, Mossad obviously made a few.
But i just learned from you that OSS, SAS, etc are not competent.,
Should we also talk about drone attacks mistakes?
or the 0 number of attack by most European countries. There is also responsibilities by omission.
But i am sure your intention is precisely that Jeff, fostering omission.
Speaking of omission, I found it interesting that the Spielberg historical film “Munich”, which was an account of Operation Wrath of God, completely omitted the killing of the innocent Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway.
“Bouchikhi and his pregnant wife had gone to see a movie. After taking a bus back and getting off at a bus stop, they began slowly walking back home. As they were in sight of their home, a car with four Mossad agents pulled up beside them. While two stayed in the car to provide cover, the other two got out and shot Bouchikhi 13 times with a 22 caliber pistol, his wife witnessing the shooting”
“Six other members of the team, four men and two women, were arrested before they could escape. Two agents were caught in a getaway car they were using again without having changed the license plates while trying to get to an airport the day after the assassination. ”
“The revelations of the captured agents dealt a massive blow to the secret infrastructure of the Mossad in Europe. The captured agents were interrogated over the operation. One of them, Dan Arbel, became extremely nervous as soon as his cell door shut due to his extreme claustrophobia, and provided many details on the operation in exchange for being transferred to a larger cell with a small window.”
That last bit made me LOL to be honest.
Maybe it is all make-believe, and you’ll never know if the Mossad has shown an interest.
Publicity stunt.
“Go Fund Me campaign .. Contributions will help bring water and hope to numerous disaster victims.”
Yer right
Jeff, can you show me the “Go Fund Me” campaign” that you are whining about ? I am not associated with any religion in any way (agnostic), but I detest cheap shots at a country that must fight for survival EVERY snip day !
If I get banned (again) for this comment, I don’t care, I will not stand by (like the French and British in 1938) while innocent people attempting to live a normal life get continually bombed !
STOP THE LIES ! MAGA
Sorry for the “snipped” remark, I get overheated sometimes, especially when it comes down to Israel…which is weird, considering I am non religious ….
You wrote in the comment you apologized for with what I too think and feel. I’m sure you’re forgiven, and I applaud you. It sickens me the way so many ignorant people turn everything around to blame Israel for everything.
97 thumbs up for you Marlene. No matter which God you choose to believe in, the “freedom” to believe in that God is what should make all Humans free.
Amen!
I thought California is quite dry. Air at 10% relative humidity has a dew point below freezing and humidity must reach about 20% before the dew point exceeds freezing. Sacramento California, for example has on average a relative humidity below 10% for over 7 months of the year. I expect a dehumidifier “water maker” will have a hard time extracting much water from such dry air.
Many years ago a Australian inventer produced a water from air machine. It was a windmill and did not require any external power . It never took off, the financial world was not interested.
It was featured on the ABC “New Inventers”show and apparently worked very well, . It was tested in the Australian desert.
MJE
“Many years ago a(n) … Australian inventer..(inventor)..produced a water from air machine. It was a windmill and did not require any external power . It never took off, the financial world was not interested.”
” the financial world was not interested ” because it was then, as now, “unreliable”
The Auzzie P.M. (about the same time) built multi-million dollar “desalination” plants to help against the “projected” droughts caused by “Climate Change”…As far as I know, they have never been turned on…
Geez, here we go again. An over hyped dehumidifier. Look up thunderf00t on YouTube.
So how much diesel fuel does it take to run the generator to make 155 gallons of water a day? It seems to me that logistically, if you have to truck in the fuel to run a generator, then what’s the real savings if you are just swapping a diesel tanker for a water tanker? It would seem that you need to commit an onsite person to oversee the water manufacture operation, whereas just tanking in the water to sit on a skid/flatbed on site would not.
Don’t get me wrong, I think running a dehumidifier to make potable water is a clever use of an existing technology for recycling purposes in a “closed” environment where everything has to be imported like a space station, ship or island. I am a strong advocate of recovering “manufactured water” (condensate from HVAC systems) for use in landscape irrigation systems and cooling tower makeup systems.
I think the diesel supply is much is much closer than the fresh water supply…and much cheaper.
DANG HICCUPS ! Lol
Wow, the negativity and pooh-poohing on this thread are astounding.
Show me, people, your patents, your businesses providing plentiful potable water at a lower cost in disaster areas.
You don’t have any, right? So please shut up and recognize that this system is something. Not perfect, but better than nothing.
There is a new technology coming on-line to extract water from air: Metal Organic Frameworks.
https://news.berkeley.edu/2018/06/08/in-desert-trials-next-generation-water-harvester-delivers-fresh-water-from-air/
It doesn’t require any energy to operate.
So, this unit is mounted on a truck.
How hard would it be to fill a milk trucks 8,000 gallon tank with potable water and drive it to where the firefighters are?
Ok, that 8k tank is a tractor trailer unit. A 4k gallon milk truck is usually a smaller unit that is able to travel on marginal roads.
Or you could also put three 55 gallon food grade plastic drums in a pickup and deliver right to the crews.
Those plastic drums are $75 each, new.
Paradise to a Oroville potable hydrant is roughly a 30 mile round trip.
For the cost of the water produced with these, you could probably sling load the potable water to firefighters with a helicopter.
There are places where a solar powered water from air units are needed, but for a firefighting crew, not so much.