• Question: Did you help to build the handpump or did you just oversee the project?

    Asked by hannahgrimes to Ken on 21 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Ken Gibbs

      Ken Gibbs answered on 21 Mar 2012:


      Hi Hannah: I did a bit of both.

      I was the one who put the first trial pump into the ground (and nearly damaged a hand doing it), but it was my colleague from the World Bank who was the technical wizard who suggested using the buoyant (floating) pump rods which have made the Tara so successful. I have photos of both him and me, working hard in the field. As I started the project and as I had the money (from UNICEF) to pay for the development, I oversaw virtually everything up to 1985, after which time, the project was all about production and placing pumps in the field.

Comments