Harvesting the Flying Rivers: Atmospheric Water Generation in the Heart of the Amazon
In this episode of Liquid Assets, host Ravi Kurani sits down with Ana Livi, Partner at O Amazon Air Water, to explore a business model that challenges our perception of value, hydration, and conservation. Ana reveals how her company is harvesting the "breath of the trees" in the heart of the Amazon rainforest—using Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG)—to create a luxury product that serves as a global ambassador for Brazil’s ecosystem.
The conversation moves beyond traditional water management into the realm of luxury branding and "corporate energetics." Ana explains the logistical feats of operating off-grid technology in Barcelos to capture humidity from the Amazon's "flying rivers" without cutting down a single tree. From the company’s decision to market water as a high-end celebratory drink—akin to fine wine—to Ana’s unique role in managing the "energy" and spiritual alignment of the organization, they discuss how a bottle of water can bridge the gap between commerce and the sacredness of nature.
Key Takeaways:
- Harvesting the "Flying Rivers": Unlike traditional bottled water sourced from springs or aquifers, O Amazon uses Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG) to condense the massive humidity released by the rainforest, creating a water with a unique, light structure and low minerality.
- Hydration vs. Celebration: Ana creates a distinction between daily survival water and "fine water." By positioning their product at a luxury price point (over €100/bottle), they turn water into a ceremonial experience intended for fine dining and special occasions.
- Conservation through Commerce: The business model is built on the premise that selling the "spirit" of the Amazon to the world incentivizes the preservation of the physical forest. The production facility operates with zero deforestation and relies on renewable energy.
- The Rise of Water Sommeliers: Distribution is driven largely by niche experts and "fine water" competitions. Ana highlights how water sommeliers in Europe and the US act as the primary gatekeepers for high-end hydration brands.
- Corporate Energetics: Ana shares her unorthodox approach to management, acting as an "energy consultant" who assesses the alignment of potential hires and business decisions with the "invisible fields" of the company and the Amazonian environment.
Listen On:
📺 Watch the Interview
Meet Ana Livi
Ana Livi is a Partner at O Amazon Air Water, where she leads international relationships and stewardship for a company redefining the value of hydration. Situated at the intersection of luxury commerce and deep ecological preservation, Ana works to demonstrate a new sustainable business model: harvesting the "breath of the trees" to share the Amazon's spirit with the world. Her mission extends beyond selling water; she aims to position the rainforest not as a resource to be exploited, but as a sacred entity whose "flying rivers" can be experienced through a bottle of fine "Air Water".
An architect by training with a background in humanitarian aid, Ana’s worldview was forged in the post-conflict zones of Liberia, South Sudan, and Rwanda, where she built schools. Witnessing the fragility of life in these regions, followed by a transformative realization that the planet’s existence hangs on a delicate 30cm layer of soil, she shifted her focus from physical structures to the "energetic" foundations of sustainability. This unique perspective led her to O Amazon initially as an energy consultant, where she applied her understanding of "invisible fields" to align the company’s operations with the natural flow of the forest.
Today, Ana champions a business philosophy that blends corporate strategy with "energetic" alignment, ensuring every decision resonates with the Amazon’s ecosystem. By targeting the niche world of water sommeliers and fine dining, she has positioned O Amazon Air Water as a "celebration" beverage, distinct from daily hydration. Her work proves that by tapping into the atmospheric humidity of the rainforest—without cutting a single tree—companies can create high-value assets that financially incentivize the preservation of the world's most critical ecosystems.
The Book, Movie, or Show
🎥 Symphony of the Soil
Ana recommends Symphony of the Soil, a transformative documentary she encountered during a permaculture course that highlights the fragility of our planet's ecosystems. She resonates with the film's revelation that all life on Earth is sustained by a mere 30cm layer of topsoil, a profound insight that reshaped her worldview on human vulnerability and the vital, invisible link between healthy soil and water retention.
Transcript
00:46
Ravi Kurani
Yeah, thank you for coming on. I actually came across O when I was at an equinox actually and I reached out to your partner, to Cal. He directed me to you and I was like, I have to have them on the podcast because their story sounds super cool. I love what you guys are working on. So let me just throw it over to you. Before we hit the record button, you were talking about what is O. Can you just tell the audience what do you guys do?
01:14
Ana Livi
Yeah. So O Amazon Air Water is a company that has a very special purpose of show the world a new sustainable business model. That is we deal with water but in a very unique and special way. So we are based in the heart of the Amazon rainforest and we catch a bit of the humidity of the breath of the trees and we bottle it in a very special bottle. So it's a air water, it is collected from the air and it is unique in the world and has a very special composition as well. So our company shares to the world a bit of the spirit and the purity of the Amazon rainforest through the drops of our water.
02:08
Ravi Kurani
Yeah, really cool. I want to kind of click in a little bit on how do you collect these drops? Like do you have, do you collect the dew that falls off of the trees? Like how does it, how does that work? How do you get the water?
02:20
Ana Livi
There is a technology that is open and well known as AWG, that's atmospheric water generator. Many years ago, Carl Jr. That is the main thinker and developer of the idea in the company, he came across this kind of technology. So, so he saw the machines and he was a guy in the 90s that has a show on Internet YouTube show that was not as today, but for the environmental issues. So he traveled around the world and he did a lot of interviews and was really concerned about the environment and the future of the planet. And he started to think about the what could be his focus on. And one of the issues was water and solid waste and other things. But water was one of his main topics of research and he came across this machine.
03:16
Ana Livi
So he, he saw the machines and he talked about the people that knew about the technology and he got really interested and he started to go further to the technology. So he took the first machines and development. He. He did some. It's not a development but he did some changes in the machines and he developed what we call gala system that is in Portuguese that called Generador Diago de Almidad. But it's a proper, like it's a home machine. So we have a special machine that has some changes about this main technology and is a condensation process basically so has a filter for there in a condensation process it becomes liquid and then it has other filters for the human consumption and for the drinkability.
04:12
Ravi Kurani
Yeah.
04:12
Ana Livi
So we have a very pure water somehow. And then he thinks about which air would be the best hair to get this technology from, you know. So he in this travelings from like from nice places in the world to. To assess the environment. He got to this place, the heart of the Amazon rainforest that's called Barcelos. And he's the place where today we have a very big land. Like it was a concession. And in this place, without taking one tree, one single tree, just using the structure that was there, we produce a water with no impact, you know, and we have solar energy. Our consumption of energy is really low.
04:59
Ana Livi
So the main issue from our business is the logistics because we are in the heart of the rainforest and we take a lot like by boat is 30 hours from the capital or flying. Yeah. So we are really isolated in a place where surrender by trees and the river and so in a very strategic place as well.
05:26
Ravi Kurani
What's like special about the water? I mean obviously you guys have an atmospheric water generator and AWG in the heart of the Amazon. You're taking this like Amazonian air, turning it into water. Like have you done, do you have any information? Like have you done tests on it? Like does it taste better? Like what do you, what would you say?
05:44
Ana Livi
I would say it just depends everyone that tries. But I would say that it's light. What happens is that the most of the waters that we consume it came from the ground. It came from. It comes from places, goes flows on minerals, on soil or other things. So this water doesn't have this minerality. And there is a very special issue as well that is the electric potential of the water. This is something that's more difficult for us to show. But we have some studies that has some electrical quality, you know, different from the other kind of water. But the structure, like the minerality is different from the other mineral waters. Yeah. That we have in the market and available in the.
06:33
Ravi Kurani
Yeah, yeah. And there's been people that always ask me because. Because I have this water podcast like alkaline water and basic and high ph, low ph, like you're. I feel like you're like a perfect person to finally ask this question too. Is there any like truth to that? Does it, does it make sense to drink water that's highly more alkaline? Does, does the O am on water have any play in that or like what is. Are you familiar with that world?
06:59
Ana Livi
I would say that I cannot prove or say it's true or false. I already, I really interested on it. So I, I hear a lot and sometimes I heard someone saying that in the end it's not like I drink the water in my body. Blood is completely transformed by, you know, like we have so many other things like the food, the composition, the chemical, the I don't know, the drugs that we take, the quality of so many things. And what I believe is that our body, the full body has permanent communication with everything. Yeah. So the water that we are showering, the products and so on. So of course the quality of water that we are drink is very important. And many waters that we drink, they don't either hydrotrate our bodies. So our water.
07:54
Ana Livi
Apparently with the studies that we do and all the journey that we have in these years, we can show that yes, it has more facility for our body, let's say to get absorbed or to get nutrient nutrition. Yeah, nutrients. Yeah, and nutrients. So we believe that there is the food, water, the water that really gives us. Gives us some important nice information through this consume. Yeah. So our water is not a water for hydra. Hydration, it's a water for celebration. So we position ourselves in a market that's not like to being all shell. Every shelf or liters of water is a special water for celebration or if you are having, I don't know, a meal with a nice wine or a nice situation. So our water is there to be together with.
09:00
Ana Livi
So it's not a water for every day either because it's a lower production. But as well this quality There are some authors waters that probably would be more sweet, suitable for our daily hydration, you know, so it's a special water that can feed us very well. And I believe in the end the quality of water that we drink is one of the main things for our health. So of course to be careful and the same time that the water can be our biggest medium for or the best way of getting health is the best way to get sick. So yeah, this is what I would say about that.
09:49
Ravi Kurani
So I want to rewind something that you just said right now. You talked about. You guys sell a water for celebration. You imagine having a nice dinner, you have a glass of wine. It's like you take out oh Amazon water at that point in time for those sort of events, right. It's a celebratory drink. If we rewind how that water got to my table. It's like you just said, it's not your liter jugs that I go into a supermarket and buy. After you travel from the Amazon forest through the river to like a port and finally get this out there, how is the water distributed? Like where do you primarily sell to? I think even like your business model is really interesting from an atmospheric water generation standpoint. We've by the way had a few age of AWG companies on the pod.
10:39
Ravi Kurani
Reuben Vollmer who makes spout that like sits in your kitchen and it makes water for you. And then there's another guy, Brian from a company called Aquaria that has these like big air conditioning units that like he installs in homes. But I, I, I love the way that you guys are also marketing it. And so like how does that to my table, how do you distribute this water?
10:59
Ana Livi
Our main market, it's international so it's not Brazil. So the most of our consumers they come from all over the world but spread in different place. So we the most of the distribution is by our website that is directly with us. So we don't have today any distributor like in United States, Europe, but we send abroad and we do times to times have a special purchase. I don't know, I special with spa somehow somewhere a nice hotel, you know, so or a special occasion. And we do ship some bigger quantity bottles and but the most of our logistics it go from Manaus to the world. Yeah, Manaus is our distribution.
11:56
Ana Livi
This is something that I'd like to tell you that regarding the technology that you mentioned that there are other people doing or using the technology and like the families that live in our land, they do consume the. The water from the. The technology. And it's something that Carl Jr. When was in contact with this technology, he went to the hill plus 20 in 1992. No, 2002. And he presented technology as a solution from the thirst of the world. You know, and no one here, you know, no one was interested in the solution. And he is a market guy and he think, I know I call attention to the world with a product. And he came across to this idea of having a special water.
12:50
Ana Livi
And then when he saw the quality of water, he understood where he could build up a brand that would represent Brazil and Amazon in the world with the quality of water that we doing. You know, and one of the divisions of our company is the technology. So we do have this idea of have stations, you know, with these machines with solar and solar panels or whatever we could have in boats. We could have in a very mobile ways of having this technology. So in one hand we have Amazon where water that is a special water. On the other hand we have opportunity for getting available water to places where safe water is not available easily. Yeah. And this is something that is the core of our innovation somehow that is provoked to the world, a new business model.
13:51
Ana Livi
In the end, every bottle that someone gets is actually promoting the Amazon rainforest somehow, you know, the community that is there, the trees that are there. So we like to say that you take care of a tree and then you get a bottle. Yeah. Like we are much more interested in send a message and through our brand and I'd like to show so through our bottles to have this message going to the world and people not just seeing it, but you can taste it. Yeah, you can have a bottle and really enjoy drop of the. This mist and this water of the Amazon rainforest. Yeah. So we do have all these dimensions, let's say. Yeah. Inside the same bottle. Yeah, that gets to the.
14:48
Ravi Kurani
Yeah. And by the way, if you're. If you're listening on Spotify or YouTube, you should turn on your screen right now and check out what Ana is holding. This, this bottle you're mentioning before. This is like, this is like a special. Right. It's. It's a special version of the O Amazon water. What's the story behind this?
15:04
Ana Livi
So actually all the bottles that we produce so far, they are like this. So they are in honor of this animal that's here that English is Jaguar and in Portuguese is on Sapintada. There is a story that Kao junior That is the. The founder of the company, he was there in Barcelos and then he was called because a mother of this jaguar was killed and there was a baby that no one could get closer to him. You know, like he was really wild and he was the one that gave the milk and fed the animal. So he has the pictures and so on. So in the end, SavAnah was the name of the baby jaguar become the. The owner or the. The. The name of this edition.
15:54
Ana Livi
So since 2019 was the first production we have this bottle and now we are preparing for the second edition. That will be the Victoria Reja, the flower. So this bottle is produced in the morning. So is when the jaguars just to go for hunting. So in the morning. And then the Vittoria regia, it's a flower that opens during the night and then so will be producing in the night, you know. So we have this. That's more a male energy. And we have a new edition comes that is very female energy.
16:31
Ravi Kurani
Yeah, really cool. That is awesome. And what's your story behind joining the company? I know you kind of mentioned how the founder Cal brought the. The atmospheric water generator. He totally makes sense. When did, when did Ana enter the company? Like what was your story behind?
16:48
Ana Livi
So I met first other guys that they. They was. They were with Carl Jr. In a certain moment of the company. So there were different moments of the company that developed. I met one of the. The former. The. The partners and then he presented me another one and then I came to Kyle Jr. And I started working as a therapist and with like an energetic consultancy for the company itself. So it's a company that's really sustained by the energy of the Amazon. So I started to work how we could improve the sense of the energy and support the company through the challenges. Because innovation and Amazon there are many challenges.
17:35
Ana Livi
And then I start to get so much involved in the process or knowing so much Carl Jr. And all the process that nowadays I become a partner and I'm the one in charge for the company for these international institution relationships. And I also take care of the energetics of the people and the company itself. So I have this inside role and this outside as well. Talking to the world and sharing the story and energy of all Amazon wear water to the world.
18:10
Ravi Kurani
I want to explore the inside and the outside just like you mentioned. Let's start with the inside. You mentioned that you were kind of came in like as like an energy consultant. What is. What does it look like? What is the work that you did? Can you drive the audience through kind of what. What was a day in the life look like?
18:26
Ana Livi
So in this understanding of energy, I believe that everything that we see and we live in the visible world, it has some correspondence and sustainability in the invisible world. My work is to get to the energetic or information. I like more informational field of either a company, a person, a place, a building and understand which kind of information is building what you can see. So I start to understand what was the role of the people. What was the situation of the. The. The land. What is the situation? Understand what was. I understand that we don't need to put anything. We just need to organize the.
19:17
Ravi Kurani
The. The.
19:19
Ana Livi
The net of information and to make the natural flow of life happens. So this is my work like to understand what were. What is the information? What are the. The. The things that are not helping this flowing and organizing it. Yeah.
19:39
Ravi Kurani
And what was. What's like an example of something that you found that you. You changed or moved and it like stuff worked together.
19:47
Ana Livi
Let's say if you need to hire someone first of all before doing an interview or saying if okay, let's try this person or not. I do this energetic informational trial. Does this person has the resonance to the company? Does this person is. Can be a nice match to the. The process, yes or no? If it says no, we don't go further. You know, like if we. We are deciding a kind of. We have a. A decision we want to. So I ask it to the companies information, what would better? This one or that one. And sometimes what happened there, like it's great the idea everything is perfect, but the things don't go. You know, like the things we don't know why it takes so long, it gets stuck. So I start to understand there is. Is there a person that is bringing something?
20:48
Ana Livi
Is there is missing something? Is there an energy? Sometimes there are things. Energies that comes across that someone does something against. Yeah, there are some bad energies that also we can neutralize. I would say I don't block anything but neutralize organize. So there are different possibilities, like many possibilities. But we start to understand better why things are not going well, why things are not flowing.
21:20
Ravi Kurani
Yeah, let's move to kind of the outside then. So on your like international relationship standpoint, now that you're working on distributing the product, what is, what does that look like? What is the international side of your job?
21:32
Ana Livi
So then my position would be much more like to. When we receive invitation like we have some prizes that we receive for quality and to others to understand what's going on. If we have like these days water. So Melia from Europe just call us, you know, like he was interested in do some partnership or to have some bottles with him for he just graduated from the water sommelier course and he wants like to have this portfolio of water. So I'm the one that talks the person understand what is the need how we can collaborate. We do have another water Somalia in London. That is a partner. So time to times we needed. He. He tell us oh festival, movie festival. And I can show your water. Let's do something. So this is something right. You know, very interesting about Amazon wear water.
22:32
Ana Livi
So nice people comes to us. So nice amazing stories come across our life, you know. And this is my job. Like to talk to people to understand what is going on, see what is a business opportunity, what is a relationship opportunity and. And to get closer, you know. And because our main focus is to share this information, you know and share this possibility of having this magical spirit of Amazon, you know, as far as we can.
23:06
Ravi Kurani
You talked about the water sommelier. I actually I. I was reading up on this a little while ago. Talk to us about that. What. What is a. What is a water sommelier? What do they. What do they do?
23:16
Ana Livi
So there are some confradias or some special. There is one that we. That is fine waters. This one is based in United States. Marshall is the. The main creator and founder and they do have a very serious platform forming people specialists in water Somalia in identify the qualities or the differences of water and final waters. Was our entrance to this world of the fine waters in 2019. They do have annual event. I think it's every year. I'm not sure. I I know this year would be now in April. So they do like water from all over the world can apply and they do have like a jury and they do like a certification. So we. We got the certification with this bottle the. The Jaguar in 2019. For the next one probably we will.
24:23
Ana Livi
It's a website or a place that we can research water. So this is one of the. One of the main doors to Amazon air water. You know, people that loves water and knows the fine waters go there and research special waters, different waters and contact us from there. So this is a very nice hobby and distribution of information in the world of waters. These fine waters in the world. And a lot of people come to us because of the fine waters.
24:54
Ravi Kurani
Yeah, really interesting. And yeah. And I remember from. From the beginning of this conversation you had mentioned that primarily distribution is done through the website. Just people buying the water. And so in order for them to the. The Marketing the kind of visibility of it is done through these events, through these water smells.
25:12
Ana Livi
And it helps a lot. Yeah. For us. Yeah, yeah.
25:15
Ravi Kurani
And how much does a, does a bottle, does a bottle go for?
25:18
Ana Livi
So this bottle is €106.
25:23
Ravi Kurani
Okay.
25:24
Ana Livi
Yeah. And our. This is 750 milliliters. So it's a bit less than one liter. And the bigger. Now the new bottle will be a liter and a half. So it'd be €200, 260 years.
25:40
Ravi Kurani
And from like a production standpoint, are you, how many units of these atmospheric water generators do you have? Like, are you constrained from a supply perspective? Is there, is there enough, like, do you have a lot of room to grow? What is, what does that look like?
25:54
Ana Livi
We do have like ice station. I would not tell us. I don't know exactly the number of liters we can produce exactly. But we do have a station and it is enough for the, how can I say for the demands that we do have nowadays. Yeah. The idea, like it's possible to have as big as we want, you know, it's just to have the machines and. But the idea is to keep any special production.
26:27
Ravi Kurani
Yeah.
26:27
Ana Livi
And, and is a water that has no conservation as well. Yeah. So is a water that. It's nice to have it fresh, not to have a bottle that is spent, I don't know, years in a container or in a department storage, you know, like just getting. So it's really fresh. The water that everyone gets from our distribution.
26:53
Ravi Kurani
Yeah, yeah. I want touch on a point that were talking about earlier. And you obviously have a very kind of large spiritual element, the energy work that you do. I think that also plays into the fact that this water is coming from the Amazon. You know, there's. You were talking about like not all water being the same. I just, I wanted to kind of open up that conversation and give you space to talk about because I thought it was really interesting.
27:19
Ana Livi
So I think the one of very important word or way of talking about water, I think is sacredness. Yeah. So I believe water is a sacred subsistence, a sacred liquid that it sustained the life in the planet. And there are some theories that say that water is not from the earth and it was, it came to Earth from the asteroids or any fragment of planets or stellar material. And then it got to the Earth and become the oceans. And. And there is a very like. Water is a substance that we go to some particularities. It is unique. Yeah. It goes against many of the chemical and physics rules. So I was having a note of some of them that apparently the structure of the water is so light that it was supposed to be a gas, not a liquid.
28:30
Ana Livi
And water is a substance the unique that it expands when gets frozen. So this is what allows water, the. The ice to get floating, the water and life to get under. So there are so many qualities of water that we take for granted because when we live in places where just open the tap and water flows, we. We forgot like the. The importance and the sacredness of water. And of course everything that is alive it's mainly structure is water. So in when we get connect to all this information and we see a place as the Amazon rainforest. And Ravi, if you have never been there, I invite you once to. To be there. And this is very strong like this. It's so huge. So huge. So huge.
29:25
Ana Livi
You see this water source, this river and it says that the flying rivers of the Amazon that is from where we catch the. Our drinking water. It's 10 times the volume of the Negro. The rivers, the Amazon river that you can see, it's completely invisible in front of us. Yeah. And this magical water that is just there, you know, we are in the middle of the water in these trees. For myself like I. I took one year that I. I was already working the energy of the company to get there in person to the Amazon just to. To be connected to the energy of something that is from the Amazon rainforest is something really strong. And these few people managed to be working with us because just to get closer to the.
30:22
Ana Livi
The energy things start to happen and naturally people just go away, you know. So I know that to do this work, this energetic. I have been prepared or I develop myself in my own strength of spirituality. To be able to do this water is a way of this strength. Yeah. Of this forest. We just borrow it and send it to. Maybe you get there and of course you can drink without consciousness. But even though we don't know what we are doing, the water gets to our body and the information is there. So thank you for inviting us to share this information because it's quite special somehow. And it's not the main aspect of the business, the main aspect of. But I believe in the end this is what makes difference in how we human beings also develop ourselves. And when we.
31:25
Ana Livi
We understand the sacredness of these basic elements that are taken for granted in our life. But if we start to get more connected to what is behind, it's changed completely the way how we also see life live Life and even become more healthy people. Yeah. Through this connection.
31:49
Ravi Kurani
Ana, I asked everybody one question before we sign off and that's do you have a book, a TV show or a movie that has profoundly changed the way that you like look at the world?
32:02
Ana Livi
There are many and I have a very.
32:07
Ravi Kurani
Very.
32:08
Ana Livi
I have a very strong experience in my life that I work with humanitarian aid Africa and I work in Liberia, South Sudan, in Rwanda as an architect building schools. And I saw these completely destroyed context or post conflict? Post war. And after going to Africa, I went to the permaculture course. And in this course there was a movie. I don't remember the name, but it would show that the whole life in the planet is to stain in a layer of grounding of 30cm. So if you get this 30cm of layer of life that across the planet and it just remove it. Yeah. Let's say if you get a forest and you remove them, the whole life of the planet get lost. You know. And after now my life so many things happen.
33:10
Ana Livi
But then I got to the again to the land in my homet and we start work with agroforest as well and we start to understand that then when we respect the soil, we plant water. And then I come to the. The. The sacredness and the importance of the water and then I. I put both. So this movie that show me that the 30cm of the Earth sustain changing my. My perception of the world. You know, like in the sense of we are so fragile but so fragile that if nothing happens with us but just the earth get removed 30 centimeters, it's over. And then the importance of the retention of the water and how much the water sustain the whole. The whole story. Yeah. That we are here. Yeah.
34:03
Ravi Kurani
Awesome. Yeah. We'll need to get that movie from you so I can. I can link it in the show notes.
34:07
Ana Livi
I don't know if I can, but I'll try. I'll try to. To find that.
34:10
Ravi Kurani
Awesome. Ana, thank you so much for joining us.
34:14
Ana Livi
Thank you Ravi for inviting us and to share this information.
34:18
Ravi Kurani
Yeah, of course. Have a great rest of your day.
34:20
Ana Livi
Oh you too. Thank you.