Joseph Saitabao saw perennial water where no one else did. He saw it around Mount Suswa, Kenya, where no one lived during the dry season due to the lack of water. During the rainy season, people would get by on rooftop water harvested in tanks, or runoff captured in ephemeral ponds they built. But when tanks and ponds dried up people would leave until the rains returned. Joseph, however, saw untapped water in the form of steam arising from natural vents in the earth.
He got the idea for how to harvest this water by observing a geothermal plant while he was looking for work in another area with steam vents near Hell’s Gate National Park, 100 kilometers away. Undeterred by his lack of formal education, Joseph taught himself how to harvest that steam through innovation and experimentation.
