Seth Siegel’s bestselling book Let There Be Water describes how Israel transformed itself from a water-starved nation with frequent droughts into a country with enough water surplus to export to neighbors, landlocked Jordan in particular.

A big part of Israel’s water miracle has been desalination, which removes salt from seawater to make it drinkable. But the soggy elephant in the room is that desalinated water is missing all of the essential minerals for proper human nutrition that are present in spring, lake and well water.

“When the first local research studies about what desalinated water does for health came out, we discovered that people were dying in Israel because the water they’re drinking has no minerals,” Elad Erdan tells ISRAEL21c.

The study used data from one of Israel’s HMOs and compared health outcomes from six years before and six years after the advent of desalination. “We were able to see the difference in the number of strokes and heart attacks.”

It’s not just a problem for Israel. “Desalination is a process that’s accelerating all over the world,” Erdan points out. Globally, more than 300 million people now get their water from desalination plants, according to the International Desalination Association.

Erdan is CEO of Mayu, an Israeli startup based in Emek Hefer, near Hadera, that is dedicated to “fixing water.”

The cleanest example of what Mayu is proposing is the addition of minerals to existing water. The company already has formulations to boost the immune system and add electrolytes, important for runners (like Erdan).

But that’s just one piece of the puzzle.

Mayu’s water filtration devices handle three important steps: purification, where the water is filtered; aeration, where the oxygen levels in the water are balanced; and mineralization, which involves “micro-dosing” minerals into your daily drink.

“Our vision is to make sure we can gift the world with healthy and sustainable water, accessible to anyone, anywhere,” Erdan explains