Young entrepreneur produces concrete canvas water tanks for arid lands

ISTANBUL

A young university graduate, who is said to be the first Turk to get a scholarship from the U.K. monarch, has become a businesswoman producing water tanks made of “concrete canvas” and installing them in arid lands, especially in African countries.

“Environmentally friendly and easy to set up anywhere you want, our canvas tanks differ from all others,” the 28-year-old Beren Kayalı told daily Hürriyet.

Kayalı graduated from the faculty of mechanical engineering of Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University. Studying for a master’s degree at the U.K.’s Imperial College London and The Royal College of Art, she said she became the first Turk to a earn scholarship from the monarchy.

Her life changed when she met her Spanish friend Pual Mendieta. “His father was an expert on water projects and he had a postgraduate degree on ‘concrete canvas.’ We started working on this,” Kayalı said about the start of Deploy Tech, the company they run together.

The duo went to Kenya in 2019 to examine water tanks in some 175 villages. “Then we designed our water tanks with concrete canvas. In a short time, we found an investment fund with a worth of $940,000,” she noted.

When asked if they had any order, she said the government of Colombia demanded some 180 water tanks.

“Our tanks are environmentally friendly. We save around 70 percent of water while establishing one of our water tanks,” Kayalı said. “Also, they are easy to set up. Each weighs only around 450 kilos,” she added.