You are in Johannesburg and working in various provinces. What other problems in the area need to be solved? In the United States, we hear about the problems of AIDS and distrubuting AIDS medication. Are there any other dire problems that you see?
Well, we’ve really only got two problems in South Africa. One is AIDS, which is a massive problem. And the medical distribution of antiretroviral drugs is not so much of a problem, the distribution of it, it’s the actual administering of the stuff. You know, it’s not necessarily just one pill, where you can just take one pill and then you’re fixed, you know? It’s a regime of about 8 to 10 different drugs that you have to take in a controlled methodology. You have to take them at the same time every day. And you have to take some before you’ve eaten food and after you’ve eaten food. And you have to take the yellow one, then the blue ones, then the green ones. And it’s a regime. And when you get to the average African person that doesn’t possess a watch, it’s difficult for them to be able to adhere to the methodology of taking the pills in the right sequence. And they sometimes skip a day, or they forget to take them. That is a problem that is very real. And I’m led to believe that if people do take these drugs in the wrong order, or miss a couple of days of taking these, then they become immune to any kind of antiretroviral drug. That’s a real problem. That’s a difficult one to solve.

So that’s a big problem. The other problem we’ve got here is with crime, which is getting much better. It is a problem that keeps everybody on their toes. And, you know, a lot of it is opportunity at this time. And a lot of it is not malicious, you know, hijackings and murders. And they only got it because they’re starving. They’re going to sell something they got of yours for $2.00 and they’re going to buy a loaf of bread.

How do you handle potential volunteers? If someone wants to volunteer to work with your organization in Africa is there anything set up to do that?
FIELD: Yes, it’s a difficult question. We get requests all the time from people who want to come to South Africa and install pumps. And obviously you’ve got to get a spade and a shovel and dig holes and mix concrete and like that. It’s all very noble. But we’ve got African people that actually need those jobs. And we’ve got those people to do those jobs. And also, we have a problem guaranteeing the safety and well-being of foreigners in rural communities, working in areas that they’re not familiar with. We have requests all the time from people wanting to volunteer. And the short answer’s no, we have cracked how to work that one out yet.

What is the best piece of advice that you have ever received?

FIELD: The best advice I’ve ever received, ever, is to, and everybody says this, but it’s true, believe in yourself. You’ve got to believe in your idea.

I mean when I told all my friends that I was going to make a children’s roundabout that pumps water. And I was going to change the affliction of Africa, they all laughed at me. All of them. But when Laura Bush announced the 16.4 million dollar investment into my company, there was nobody laughing then.

I mean when I told all my friends that I was going to make a children’s roundabout that pumps water. And I was going to change the affliction of Africa, they all laughed at me. All of them. But when Laura Bush announced the 16.4 million dollar investment into my company, there was nobody laughing then.

So the best advice that I’ve ever got was that you’ve just got to do it. It’s like the Nike slogan. You’ve just got to do it. You have the most comprehensive map that anyone’s ever made, without having taken a travel once. And action’s what it’s all about. You’ve just got to do it. You’ve got all of these fantastic ideas, but if you just sit there and think about them, that’s hopeless. You know, you just got to get off your butt and get out there and got to do it.

I think a lot of the students in the university that have studied in Europe and so on would benefit from hands-on experience. I would make sure that they would have to go on a sojourn to different parts of the world, and actually, physically stand there and work with the engineers how they’re going to fix a bridge. Rather than looking at it on a computer in a university.

So at this point, there are approximately 1,000 pumps installed.
FIELD: Yes.

Where does it go from here? What are the plans? Do you have a certain number of installations planned or targeted for the next several years?
FIELD: Well, we’ve got a plan to expand into nine other countries and to expand the base in South Africa. The target at the moment is about 4,000 pumps, which will ultimately benefit close to ten million people. But that’s just a tiny fraction of what we’re trying to do. We’re working with all sorts of different of people. We’re looking for partners in all sorts of different countries. I mean we can’t do this on our own. We can try and do 4,000 pumps on our own, and we will do that. It will take a couple years. But if we had a franchise-type model – franchise is probably the wrong word but the right terminology – if we could put out a model together in such a way that we can take it to Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Congo, India, Dinah, the Pacific Rim countries. If we could franchise the concept and the know how and the IP to other groups. That they could work on it and we could change this water shortage problem that the world is facing in a much bigger fashion than what we would be able to do on our own.

And in these regions, how is the government involvement? And what are you looking forward to in terms of help from political groups?
FIELD: Well, all of the countries that we’ve been to have decided – well, we’ve got a public-private partnership with South African Department of Water Affairs. And they have helped us very nicely in the past to identify areas of need and then identify boreholes and such. And all the target countries that we’re going to before we actually get into their countries, we insist on putting an MOU, which is a Memorandum of Understanding between ourselves and the government. So that they free passage through their border posts with this equipment. There’s no way we’re going to pay import duty like gift. So they clear that import duty problem out of the way. They also help us with their Department of Water Affairs to identify certain boreholes or institute drilling programs for people who are disadvantaged. And that is the way we’re looking for help from the government. That’s what we want them to do.

You had previously mentioned the election in Zimbabwe, and of Robert Mugabe conceding. Are you looking to benefit from changing leadership? Can you foresee bettering conditions that can help your work?
FIELD: I think you’ll find that Zimbabwe will be chalk and cheese as of tomorrow, if what I heard is correct, that Robert Mugabe has decided he’s not going to contest the election. We’ve worked a democratic change. If that is the case, then you will see Zimbabwe, can we say, come to life again. There will be so much money pouring into that place it will be a joke because the people are already suffering. They’re our neighbors. We’ve been wanting to help them for a very long time. But you can’t go into the place. We haven’t been there because we didn’t want put any of our installation crews at-risk for political harassment or worse, number one. Number two, they wouldn’t allow us to bring the equipment in without charging us a 32% import duty, which was never going to happen in my lifetime. And number three, you know, their own bloody basic system. They go uphill. You can’t shove a truck up with diesel. You can’t go anywhere. So all of those are big problems, and I think those going to get ironed out first. You know, the infrastructure’s going to get sorted out. The fuel situation’s going to change. The inflation rates going to start coming down because people will start investing in the country because of the fact that the regime has changed. And that helps to buy their future. I think it’s going back to impact, not just Zimbabwe, but the Sub-Saharan African Region in a positive way.

That all sounds very positive.
FIELD: Yes. It does. We’re very excited. I can’t wait to get into Zimbabwe with my PlayPump system to help the people of Zimbabwe because, you know, I know that they’re suffering. I know just how many have been born in the wrong time in the wrong place and be under the wrong dictator. And, you know, they want to be able to breathe, eat, sleep just as well as you and me, and they deserve better.

I thank you very much for your time. I really respect what you are doing.
FIELD: A pleasure talking to you then. Take care. Have a good day.