The deal between Emirates NBD bank and Sky River was signed at Gulfood in Dubai this month, after Sky River launched its water coolers, which capture the air around them before filtering and cooling the vapour into pure drinking water.
The bank said it was its “duty” to support local small- to medium-sized businesses, especially one “engaged in socially-conscious concerns”.
Sky River’s chief executive, Faheema Mohamed, said her company had been finding ways to commercialise and produce age-old techniques to solve the problem of water shortage.
Its technology replicates the natural process of rain, filtration and mineralisation, as sophisticated thermal-exchange condensation-modules convert water from vapour into a liquid state.
The water passes through up until it reaches near purity before minerals such as calcium and magnesium are manually added to it.
“This technology has been around in some form for 5,000 years so it got us thinking, ‘let’s bring it to the Middle East’,” Mohammed said.
“In simple terms, we are harvesting the purest drinking water from thin air. No need for bottles, no plastic, no chemicals. This is water in its purest form.”
Units designed for homes can produce up to 20 litres of water per day, while bigger units for industrial use can make up to 10,000 litres of drinking water in 24 hours.
Founded just two years ago as the “Emirati answer to the current water crisis affecting millions of people”, Sky River claims its the water its technology produces contains just 10-20 parts per million of “total dissolved solids”, far less than the roughly 100-200ppm solution in bottled waters.
“The filtering system even clears out the “bad air”, so there is no issue with airborne germs—even if people cough and sneeze around the machine. You could even have a car engine running next to it and not have to worry,” Mohamed added.