GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Gaza Strip recently managed to take advantage of the latest technologies used to produce potable distilled water, thanks to Israeli cooperation.

In early January, Damour for Community Development, a nongovernmental organization based in Ramallah in the West Bank, brought into the besieged enclave two atmospheric water generators that turn air into water using solar power. The machines are produced by Watergen, an Israeli branch of a US company that obtained the patent for this device in 2015. Watergen paid for half the cost of the two devices, while three families residing in Europe donated the other half. The two machines cost about $61,000 each. 

The first generator was placed in the municipality of Abasan al-Kabira while the second was installed in the municipality Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza. Meanwhile, the Arava Institute for Environmental Research in Israel donated a third generator that was placed in Abdel Aziz Rantisi Specialized Hospital for Children in the Gaza Strip.

The representative of Damour for Community Development in Gaza, Fathi Sheikh Khalil, told Al-Monitor that the device generating water from air uses a heat exchanger to cool the air and condense water vapor into fresh drinking water. The generator relies on several sand and mineral filters to purify the air and capture humidity. Then the heat exchange process begins, with water absorbed and distilled, and the necessary minerals injected into it, he added.