In 2009, I was a young engineer who just received his EIT and was ready to change the world. I remember sitting in a workshop at an AWWA ACE conference, listening to a panel of experts discuss rural water projects in developing countries. “This is what I am going to do with my career!” I thought to myself.

As the presentations wrapped up and Q&A began, I asked the panel a simple question, in an eager attempt to learn more about WASH.

“Is there somewhere I can go to see a map of hand pumps around the world?”

Silence.

“You mean for one project?”

“No, like all of them.”

[insert laughter here]

Apparently, my foolish idea wasn’t well thought out and I was quickly told “no…[more laughing]…that’s pretty much impossible,” and then followed by “How would you even fund a project like that?”

A little over a year later…