"Our business is to promote the culture of consumption, of the only water in the world extracted from the humidity of the purest air on the planet. Contribute to the conscious development of the Amazon with the business and resources generated is our mission. Cal Junior.
When they finally presented the Ô Amazon Air Water project to the mayor of the municipality of Barcelos, they received a look of disbelief in return. “My immediate reaction was to think it was a joke,” recalls the mayor. “I had no idea how this would be possible. But then I realized that air conditioning also produces water. And I was curious to know more.”
That was in 2012. “The first time I flew over the region and came across that vast green space, I felt like I was entering another world. It was indescribable.” Cal Júnior already knew the place well – he was there in 2002 to produce a documentary about the Ornamental Fish Festival, a traditional event in Barcelos. The city, with 26 thousand inhabitants, is 655 km from Manaus by river and is home to the largest freshwater archipelago in the world. It is also the second largest municipality in terms of territorial area in the world.
In June 2014, two years after that passage and the first meeting with the president of the Barcelos City Council, the Barcelos City Council unanimously approved Law No. 537/2014, which authorizes the head of the executive, that is, the President of the Chamber, to sign a 30-year property use concession with Ô Amazon Air Water. The property in question, where the socio-environmental complex is being implemented, is an old palm heart factory located in an area of 1.75 million square meters, in the middle of the forest, on the banks of the Rio Negro. The building already exists. To begin operating, therefore, Ô Amazon Air Water did not cut down any trees, on the contrary: the surroundings of the building were reforested. The entire production flow structure of the deactivated factory was reused.