Key takeaway
The episode spotlights how atmospheric water generation (AWG) offers a scalable, decentralized solution to water insecurity, turning lessons from military logistics into a blueprint for reducing waste, boosting resilience, and empowering vulnerable Indo-Pacific communities through local water production.
Bottled-water pallets burn, plastic piles grow and aircraft haul “expired” crates across oceans, all because remote bases and towns can’t trust the tap.
In this Part 1 of “Clean Water for Vulnerable Indo-Pacific Communities” episode, host Todd Crowley sits down with former Army logistician Shannon Lemanski, founder of Queensland social enterprise Aqua Ubique, to unpack a different path: atmospheric water generation (AWG).
Lemanski traces hard lessons from Papua New Guinea and East Timor – where uniformed forces were ordered to slash and burn perfectly good bottles to today’s boil-water alerts in Cherbourg. With more than two million Australians still lacking reliable drinking water, the problem is local before it is global.
The discussion moves from field anecdotes to strategy:
✔️ Why AWG mirrors rooftop solar – producing a critical resource at the point of need.
✔️ The hidden cost of long-haul bottled water and how decentralised systems lift supply chain resilience.
✔️ A commercial model that charges offices for ten bottles yet makes thirty on-site, funding machines for remote communities on a 5-for-1 basis.
✔️ Partnering with First Nations groups and food-rescue networks to build trust and sovereign capability across the Indo-Pacific.
Planners will leave with a practical blueprint to cut convoy kilometres, reduce plastic waste and harden infrastructure against disruption—a win for budgets, health and national interest.
More to come in Part 2. Find deeper briefs and field-ready frameworks inside Vaxa Bureau.
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