How to ensure access to drinking water for everyone when there is no water? The Dew Water Project
A challenge with an important objective
Let’s go back for a moment to the COVID period, a difficult time for everyone, when we learnt how important hygiene and disinfection are.
However, not everyone had the same tools at their disposal to protect themselves. In Cambodia, for example, entire communities did not have access to disinfectants, detergents or adequate amounts of drinking water and electricity.
It was in this context that the Lions Club contacted us with an important goal: to find a way to purify water and improve the health and sanitation conditions of a village.
Hence the ‘Acqua di Rugiada’ (Dew Water) project was born.
The difficulties of the project
The aim of the project was noble, but there was no shortage of difficulties. First of all, the area where the system was to be installed lacked an easily accessible source of drinking water, which meant that we had to find a way to, literally, create water out of thin air. What is more, the whole system had to operate without a stable energy source, such as an electricity connection.
As if that were not challenging enough, the system also had to be fully mobile. It had to be easily transported to the site and assembled in advance.
Acqua di Rugiada was a real opportunity for us to put our skills to use.
What have we achieved?
Thanks to a collaboration with a university professor we often work with, we discovered a tool capable of creating a wholly natural disinfectant, called anolyte, using just water and salt.
Anolyte is indeed at the heart of the Acqua di Rugiada project – a powerful disinfectant that can be used in multiple applications. This compound not only potabilises water, making it safe for human consumption, but is also extremely versatile: it can disinfect food, surfaces and rooms, ensuring a high level of hygiene even in complex contexts.
Just think of emergency situations such as natural disasters, or isolated areas where drinking water is scarce and sanitation is limited. Acqua di Rugiada meets precisely these needs, providing safe water and ensuring a level of hygiene that is essential for people’s health.
Water from the atmosphere and solar power
The real innovation of the project lies in the station’s ability to adapt to extreme environments. Imagine being in an area with no direct access to water and no electricity grid: Acqua di Rugiada is designed to deal exactly with this kind of scenario.
Thanks to 600 kWp photovoltaic panels, the station is self-sufficient, producing the energy required to generate the anolyte and purify water to make it drinkable.
But that’s not all: in the absence of available water, the station is able to produce water by extracting it directly from the atmosphere. ES Frigo developed a refrigeration unit that acts as a dehumidifier, producing water by condensing it directly from the moisture in the air.
A technology that seems almost magical, creating water virtually out of thin air, but which today is a real possibility to ensure access to drinking water even under the most difficult conditions.
A future of innovative solutions
Participating in the Acqua di Rugiada project was an opportunity for us at ES Frigo to make a tangible contribution to an initiative that can make a difference in emergency situations and for vulnerable communities. The idea of being able to guarantee clean water and hygiene everywhere, even under the most difficult conditions, is something that has fascinated us from the very beginning.
We are proud to have been chosen for this initiative thanks to our experience and ability to adapt. Together with all those who contributed, we were able to develop a solution that addresses unprecedented environmental and logistical challenges.

Acqua di Rugiada, unfortunately, could not reach the place for which it was intended because of the difficulties related to the pandemic. For this reason, the Lions Group chose to donate it to the Civil Defence Association of Alessandria. Today, thanks to this choice, it has become a special destination for many schoolchildren, who discover here how even the most difficult challenges can be tackled when there is something really important at stake.
We won this challenge through collaboration and commitment, and we are proud to have been part of it. If there is one thing that Acqua di Rugiada has taught us, it is that the best solutions are those that look ahead.