GEN-350 technology provides 120 orphans in Uzbekistan with fresh water from air

Watergen, an Israel-based innovative company that creates clean water out of air, is now providing a source of freshwater for more than 120 children living in an orphanage in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. The technology comes in the form of an atmospheric water generator known as the GEN-350, which can produce up to 900 liters of water per day.

A popular tourist destination associated with arid weather conditions, Bukhara has recently been experiencing serious water shortages.

Earlier this month, water supply was even disrupted for almost two days. The entire city of Bukhara was left without drinking water, including several busy hotels. Since the local underground water is unusable, fresh water is currently supplied to Bukhara from the city of Samarkand, almost 300 kilometers away.

A girl in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, samples water from an atmospheric water generator known as the “GEN-350,” May 2019. Credit: Watergen.

Watergen’s president, Dr. Michael Mirilashvili said that “Uzbekistan’s water utility company was thrilled with our water-from-air solution and requested to run pilots in several other regions of Uzbekistan. Although there is only 20 percent humidity in the air of Bukhara, the GEN-350 was still able to generate hundreds of liters of high-quality drinking water.”

With a weight of just 800 kilograms, the GEN-350 is transportable and can be installed easily. Each unit contains an internal water-treatment system and needs no infrastructure except a source of electricity in order to operate.

It was installed at the orphanage as part of a test pilot, estimated to run for about two months, in order to demonstrate the generator’s unique capabilities to produce hundreds of liters of clean, safe-drinking water in the arid environment of Bukhara.

Attending the inauguration ceremony were senior political leaders in Uzbekistan, including First Deputy Prime Minister Achilbay Ramatov; Prosecutor General Otabek Murodov; Governor of the Bukhara region Uktam Barnoev; and the mayor of Bukhara, Karim Kamolov.

Michael Rutman, Watergen’s vice president of sales and marketing who was present at the ceremony, said “the children were very excited to drink the high-quality water.”