In 2018, Noel signed an agreement
with the government of Nauru to
provide a similar system for that
island country in the Central Pacific
where sourcing drinking water has
been a continuous problem for
residents. He built and shipped a
demonstration system to Nauru
with GEF assisting him on this
project, crediting Giles Romulus,
GEF’s National Coordinator, for
believing in him and supporting his
ambitions. I caught up with Noel at this
year’s National Schools’ Science &
Technology Fair held in March at
Derek Walcott Square where he
was the featured speaker. “Education is not a classroom; it is
something for the brain,” he told
me in our interview afterwards. “So
I just kept feeding my drive and
curiosity.”
He told me that since sending
the desalinator to Nauru, he has
been working on other projects,
including a water purification
system for Tanzania that will deal
with the high concentration of
fluoride in the water there. Nauru normally experiences
lengthy periods of drought and
limited fresh water supplies have
perennially been subject to high
levels of biological and industrial
pollution. A classic example: The
1998–2000 drought forced Nauru’s
desalination plant out of service,
severely limiting water supplies to
the 8.1 square-mile island’s 11,000
residents, forcing them to rely on
ground water which, in 2010, was
found to be highly-contaminated. Noel was accompanied by Laura
Jn. Pierre, Operations Manager of
Invictus Inc., a company they co-
founded earlier this year and the
two have embarked on an intensive
marketing campaign to get the
word out about their plans to solve
a few more problems. Speaking to the importance of
science and technology fairs for
students, Noel does not believe
that only schoolchildren should
be targeted, recalling an incident
when he saw a young man riding a
bicycle which had a sound system
fitted to it that was powered by
solar power.
During his address, Noel explained
to the students the importance
of science, noting that despite
dropping out of school he was
still able to continue his education
because he kept on reading and
learning.
56 SL-YOU | It’s All About Business
“I started wondering how he came
up with such an idea. So let’s go
into the ghettos. You’d be amazed
to see that the next Nobel Laureate
comes from Grass Street,” he
explained.
Jn. Pierre said she has known Noel
all her life, but admitted to never
knowing just how brilliant he was
since “we didn’t run in the same
circles growing up”. But when he
developed the desalinator, she said
she was amazed.
www.slyoumag.com | September-October 2019