By Bill Zlatos
Published: Friday, September 14, 2012, 2:38?p.m.
Updated less than a minute ago
On a religious mission to the African nation of Malawi, Aubrey C. Briggs noticed native women balancing 50-pound buckets of water on their heads while walking two four-mile roundtrips each day.
Briggs, 91, of Sewickley Heights vowed to pay for and create a water system to ease their plight. Nineteen years later, on Sept. 24, he will receive the first World Mission Initiative Award from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in East Liberty for making good on that promise.
?I don?t think I deserve all the attention I?m getting,? he said during an interview at the home he designed. ?I?m just an engineer.?
Born in Sydney, Briggs grew up in a small house made of cement blocks. He became an engineer and in 1953 designed what was then the largest crane in the Southern Hemisphere.
He soon realized he was not going to top that feat in Australia.
?If you want to catch deep fish, you got to go where the water is deep,? he said. ?And the water is deep in the U.S.?
Briggs moved his late wife Nancy and their children to the United States by way of Canada. He worked as a structural engineer for Dravo Corp. and retired in 1985. He consults through his company, Briggs International Inc.
Briggs saw the women carrying water when he volunteered to help roof a church in the Domasi region of Malawi in 1993. He wanted to help them.
?His Christian faith, that?s what drives him,? said the Rev. Bill Paul, 77, of Cranberry, who recommended him for the award. ?Under that is compassion for people who are struggling and are marginalized.?
Briggs found drinkable water 1,000 feet up a mountain. He spent $300,000 of his money to buy materials and hire 50 Malawian workers, paying them 38 percent above the government-recommended pay.
He designed a system that pipes the water four miles to a 3-million-gallon reservoir. The water goes to Domasi Mission School, a clinic and a five-acre garden.
Briggs ignored skeptical Africans who said his plan would not work. When a family of squatters demanded he pay them for land that belonged to the government, Briggs snapped a photo of them and threatened to show it to the nation?s president, a supporter of the project. The family gave in.
On another occasion, he noticed a man stalking him as he walked alone one night in the jungle. The man grabbed his shoulder and insisted he take a different route with him.
? ?No, you don?t,? ? Briggs recalled telling him and pulled out a knife. ?Boy, did he take off.?
It took 10 years to complete the project that Briggs acknowledges should have taken three or four months. The water system began operating in 2002.
Briggs turns 92 on Sept. 22. His next goal is to create a traveling lock, starting at Lake Malawi, that could transport river barges by rail for 37 miles to the Indian Ocean. He estimates the cost at $100 million and hopes the American government will help.
?It would allow landlocked countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi access to the Indian Ocean, thus transforming the economy in southeastern Africa,? Paul said. ?It?s a huge dream he is dreaming.?
Bill Zlatos is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7828 or bzlatos@tribweb.com.
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