Durban innovator presents a solution to water crisis

Water from Air technical director, Paul Raglan-Smith and CEO Ray de Vries with a mobile 1,500 litres per day machine designed and manufactured in South Africa.

De Vries is the CEO of Water from Air, a company that manufactures, assembles and markets machines that harvest the humidity from the air and convert it into pure drinking water. The smallest machine makes up to 32 litres per day and the largest machine up to 1,500 litres per day. The machine not only harvests its own water from the air, but also passes it through a filtration system as well as a UV sterilisation process.

De Vries, who is in Cape Town to meet with city officials, hoteliers and restaurateurs as well as for a FEDHASA congress, said: "We have relied on government and municipalities to provide us with potable water forever. The question we are faced with is: what if there is no water, or worse still, what if the water that we have is not drinkable, toxic or even fatal?"

It is time, he says, that we take charge of our own potable water drinking supply so that we know what we are drinking. "We cannot control climate change, pollution, poor water management and the many other factors that affect the availability and access to potable water."

The company has sold over one thousand machines and is selling over “a dozen” a day to the greater Cape Town region. "Cape Town is in uncharted territory right now – never before have the dams been this empty. Never before has there been less than 100 days of water left. The 'what if' question might be too terrible to think about but we need to face reality."

“The only immediate way to get water is to take charge and secure your own supply – from the air. Make rain while the sun shines” he said.