“We have been taking water for granted”

From the robotics club in her former boarding school basement, to the purple plaque lauding her innovation on the walls of Imperial London, Beren Kayali is leaving a mark. She is the developer of the world’s first foldable concrete water tank, a project undertaken with her company co-founder Paul Mendieta at Water Deploy. 

Their product has travelled the world – from Libya to Ecuador, Saudi Arabia to Cyprus, Kenya to Canada – providing a pop-up, long-lasting water storage solution to support agricultural communities and emergency response. 

But when she and her team touched down in the aftermath of Türkiye's devastating earthquakes in 2023, which claimed the lives of more than 56,000 people in Türkiye and Syria, the impact of her work was closer to home than any she’d done before. 

“I come from Türkiye,” said Beren. “It was so devastating for me.”

As a new mom who was breastfeeding, Beren was aware of how her tanks could be a lifeline for other mothers and their babies. 

“If you cannot drink a certain amount of water, you cannot feed that baby,” she said. 

She made a video saying she had three water tanks and could help those in need. The video went viral with 28 million views. Her phone rang nonstop for two weeks.

In all, more than 250 supporters dialed in asking how they could help fund more tanks. Sponsored by individual donations, the Water Deploy team arrived with 15 tanks – each with the capacity to hold 14,000 liters of water.  

Now, just over 4,000 kilometers away from the epicenter of those earthquakes, global leaders are meeting in Stockholm this week for World Water Week. 

“The biggest thing that is coming for us is getting prepared for water scarcity,” said Beren. “We have been taking water for granted.”

A major risk factor for children

Along with air pollution and extreme temperatures, poor water quality is one of the top three environmental risk factors for children under five in Europe and Central Asia.

This is being exacerbated by climate change and environmental degradation, which affects almost 160 million children across Europe and Central Asia. Children are hit first and hardest by every type of climate and environmental risk. These include extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods, sandstorms, mudslides and landslides, but also slow-onset changes triggered by climate change, such as drought, desertification and water scarcity.

In conflict settings like Ukraine, attacks on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure has brought the water sector close to collapse – threatening children’s health and lives. Currently, more than 1.7 million children in Ukraine have no access to safe water.

Findings from UNICEF’s “Water Under Fire” report estimate that in fragile countries, children under the age of five are 20 times more likely to die due to diarrhoeal diseases linked to a lack of access to safe water and sanitation than violence.

Although water is increasingly being utilised as a tool in conflict, Beren reflects on how water can be a tool for peace and unity, thinking about this years’ World Water Week theme of ‘peace’. 

In the debris of the earthquakes in Türkiye, “everyone was again reuniting,” she said.

“Student volunteers who didn’t have money to put gas in their cars were finding the means to drive the team and find chlorine tablets.”

“Older generations in charge of the camps [went] above and beyond to help us just assemble everything.

“When it comes to that humanitarian crisis, there are no borders.”

How community launched a career

Beren’s journey with Water Deploy began as a student at Imperial College London. But she wouldn’t have made it there without the help of her community, she says. When she applied for her spot, she didn’t have the means to pay the tuition if she were accepted.

At her university in Istanbul, mentors and teachers asked close friends to chip in and fund her studies so she could make the move to Imperial. Thanks to their support, she was able to enroll.

It was at Imperial that she was awarded a “purple plaque”, which recognizes women who are leaving their mark in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“Being able to be crowdfunded by people who care for me... it paid off in a way that I was able to serve back to my community as well,” she said.

Beren’s appeal to leaders this World Water Week echoes UNICEF’s ask for increased investments in WASH infrastructure that can help communities withstand climate change.

This includes investing in “back up water” solutions, so communities can be prepared to respond if and when a disaster strikes. Places like schools and hospitals have generators for electricity if they need, she points out. But they rarely have backup for water.

Today, as part of UNICEF’s Innovation30, Beren stands shoulder to shoulder with a global community of young climate innovators providing critical solutions to global challenges.

“I might be young but... my superpower is being more brave about going on social media,” she said.

“That gave me the chance to create a video that went viral and led to something bigger than I could ever imagine.”