Calling himself a young inventor, Dwayne Henry believes that his water gauge technology is the most affordable means by which Jamaicans can regulate their water supply.

The 29-year-old, who is nicknamed “Inventor”, said that he believes his project, which is made simply from a PVC pipe and bicycle spokes and operated only with a laptop and battery, can be useful in Jamaican households, as it tells the amount of water supply that is available in water tanks, which he believes is especially significant for the elderly.

“Suppose you have an elderly lady in her house and she can barely walk, and she can’t tell when her water a finish because the tank up top. if she have something like this installed in her tank she can just click and know where the water reach inna her tank and she can make a call and just fill up,” Henry suggested.

According to Henry, he has been making items since 2012 and the water gauge is just one of his many creations. He expressed that he is naturally gifted with the knowledge and the ability to build things, though he has never had any formal training or skill that gave him the idea to create items, neither was he ever interested in scientific subjects while attending school. He said that his creative skills just randomly came to him one day.

“I use to hustle iron to earn a bread, and one day I saw two pair a wheel inna the gully and mi pick it up and put it inna mi bag. But when mi a go home the wheel dem drop out and mi walk lef the wheel them and mi reach a distance away. So mi look back on the wheel them and say you know what, mi ago take up them wheel here. So mi take them up, and carry it go home and pull it up and couple weeks after mi find a battery and start make a little vehicle. but it never modify yet, and the more mi work on it the more mi develop more skills and get new ideas,” the native of Waterhouse, St Andrew, stated.

Alhough he has been creating things for several years, such as miniature planes and trucks, he has never profited from it financially. He explained that even though he has a separate job and he doesn’t now earn from making things, it isn’t just a hobby for him — but he sees it as a career opportunity and is hoping that eventually his projects might gain some recognition.

“Long time me is a youth weh a try … long time. And mi need some assistance, especially to help with mi son. Mi nah take care a him, is somebody else a do it. So I’m doing this for my son.”

Henry said that he has gone as far as trying to have his inventions recognised by the Jamaica Business Development Corporation but no assistance came from there.

Most of his ideas he said is inspired from going to the Riverton City Landfill, which is where he generally gets material to create things. He said on his visits to collect material, whatever he sees around him that is useful for building, that is how his minds starts to generate new projects.

The idea for the water gauge, he said, came from him just creating a rain gauge.

“I was working on an iron project, that when you touch the entire metal the light come on. So I just moved on to another project on the same thing and eventually I start to make up the two ideas in my head.”

Henry said that his most popular invention so far has been a truck and a guitar that he would generally take to public festivals or shows for showcasing them, but he complained that many times persons who express interest in his invention do not necessarily want to buy them but rather take away the ideas.

“More time the people them want you sell your ideas them but 95 per cent of the people them mi know want you to sell, and like the other five per cent is like they say no don’t sell it because it can take you far,” he stated.

He also mentioned that he is planning to work on a project for persons to pay less for electricity bills, using a similar to model the water gauge but which will measure the amount of voltage in a house at particular times.