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Dai Kurokawa / EPA
Anastase Tabaro, a self-taught engineer, walks by a stream near his hydroelectricity generating station in Rutare, Rwanda.
Dai Kurokawa / EPA
Anastase Tabaro at a friend's home in Rutare, 45km north of the capital Kigali.
The European Pressphoto Agency reports — Anastase Tabaro, a self-taught engineer who had just six years of elementary-level education as a child, has built a hydroelectric system that provides power to some 700 households in and around his village in rural Rwanda.
The 59-year-old started his research in 1990 with the ultimate ambition of selling power to his neighbors, none of whom had access to electricity at that time. He built a turbine and constructed a barrage dam that he channels water from to power a generator.
"I grew up in [neighboring] Democratic Republic of Congo and my village had electricity," Tabaro says. "Then my family moved to Rwanda and our village had no electricity. I felt I couldn't live without electricity so I started to research by myself."
Dai Kurokawa / EPA
Tabaro sets up a television to play a DVD at his friend's home.
Locals come to Tabaro's home to charge their cellphones, for which he charges them 20 cents apiece.
According to kumatoo.com, a website dedicated to celebrating the ingenuity of the African people, news of Tabaro's achievements has reached the capital.
The Rwandan government decided to support this project by installing electrical poles in the village to supply electricity to a dozen homes, including the church.
With electricity, it is no longer necessary in Ngororero to cut wood for cooking or to use petrol for lighting. Electricity has changed the lives of the villagers (continue reading).
Some have even bought televisions and DVD players now that they have electricity supplied by Tabaro's system. "It's like a magic. Now my family can enjoy watching a movie, listening to a radio at our home. He's our man, our hero," a resident of Rutate village says.
The Guardian on Paul Kagame's Rwanda: African success story or authoritarian state?
According to the government, only 14 percent of Rwandans had access to electricity in 2011.
Dai Kurokawa / EPA
Tabaro stands next to a barrage he constructed to control the amount of water passing the dam.
Dai Kurokawa / EPA
Tabaro sits next to a turbine generator he has built inside his generating station.
Dai Kurokawa / EPA
People take shelter from the rain in Rutare village.
EDITOR'S NOTE: These photos were taken in May 2012 and made available to NBC News today.
Further tales of engineering exploits on PhotoBlog:
- Building an African space program from the ground up
- Auto-mechanic builds DIY airplane for $395
- Homemade Lamborghini replica draws admiring glances
•Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter
Leave a Comment:
Also along this line of entrepreneurs is a non profit organization called Step-One.org that helps provide fresh water for villages in Rwanda from rein water. Check it out. There is hope yet for good people in the world.
i hate to be a downer but if they haven't figured out that you shouldn't do your business near your water source or that you can actually collect rain water in containers there isn't much hope for them. this guy is a rare commodity in his area.
That's pretty cool. This guy needs to get an award of some kind.
Mud huts and cell phones?
It's good to know that stupidity isn't limited to the U.S.
Ok, ok, ok, You're right, I'm jumping to a lot of conclusions based on assumptions, but you have to admit that it's strange how many people rely on cell phones.
Can you hear me now?
In remote areas of Thailand, many people have cell phones. No hard lines are available....
The cell phones cost about $45+USD and then the people pay for the time they use...
The cost is very cheap and there are no plans forced on you. International calls are around $0.04+USD a minute, the son & daughter pay about $3+USD a week for the phone cards...
Now tell me who is the stupid consumer???
I guess reading comprehension isn't one of your strong suits?
Is a person intelligent if they buy cell phones, but cannot afford to feed themselves?
I'll say it again! I made a lot of assumptions!
Do you know anyone on welfare with cell phones?
Is intelligence one of yours???
Cell phones are a life line for many people @ the end of the social ladder...
BTY - YES, I know one in the USA and many in Thailand. Just how much do you pay every month for a cell phone service??? They pay about $1+USD...
Just so you know, my cell phone costs me $10 per month (Tracfone). It's not that big of a deal.
And this guy is what makes the rest of us look like morons. Hydroelectric engineering has been around for a long time, and he simply used what he could find to make it work. If more folks would follow his reasoning, we'd all be a lot better off. My father had an 8th grade education, but he rose to the highest ranks in his company, simply because he knew how to do things. Engineers came to him for the answers and specs.
Congratulations Mr. Tabaro, you are THE man among men. Keep up the good work.
OK. give us the whole story. This "self-taught" engineer wrote a letter to Switzerland asking for the donation of equipment, right? I'm sure he didn't build it out of sticks.
You take any 3-phase motor and turn it at the rated speed to produce the needed cycles and voltage...
Looks like he is using a standard air blower with about a 3" stream of water, to drive the motor. I wonder how much head pressure is required???
It is not rocket science...
The locals us a DC Generator, from a bus or truck (24V) and battery, with a DC to AC inverter, for a more stable power source. Plus the better units also use a solar panel power source with the regulator. Total cost about $300+USD...
Three-phase motor and a diesel motor are common power sources; for welders, mobile speaker systems, lights, TV/Computers, etc...
Actually, when we built a hydro plant on the Ohio River (quite a few years ago), we had Swiss engineering for that one. Not surprisingly, all the measurements were metric, and the American engineers and carpenters used SAE. I (the stupid little apprentice carpenter) solved the problem of conversion. I bought a tape measure that showed inches and feet on one edge/side of the tape measure, and metric measurements on the other. I never told the engineers or the journeyman how I made it all work, I simply said I did it my head. Everything I built fit the specs. Oh well, never tell all you know. (BTW, I could do the math conversion, but why bother when it was already calculated on the tape?)
Anyone care to guess how old Mary was when Christ was born? How much older was God?
Interesting to see him holding onto the electrical wires from the generator. At the same time he is standing in water...
But there seems to be no grounding line going to his generator system, either... ha! Ha!
The man identified the problem, devised and implemented a solution for it. More than a lot of PhD's would do. They'd just turn up their noses, shake their heads in disgust, and walk - er - drive away.
To the comments about cell phones above. Cell phones in developing countries provide huge adventages in rural areas. A text message based system is humble compared to smartphones, but it is still a ticket to a world of information such as weather, crop prices, access to displaced family members, or emergency alerts (including approaching violent malitias). True they are expensive, but cheaper than laying thousands of miles of phone wires across a country, and they could save someone's life or livelihood. In my opinion, aurguably more useful than a smartphone in the states.