Rea worked on sabbatical from Arup as an unpaid volunteer to help design and build the civils works for the 700kW Zambezi Rapids hydropower project.
He spent a year on site to deliver the project, which was commissioned by a charity with a budget of just over US$2.5M. In holding all technical and managerial responsibility for the scheme, he worked with the mostly untrained labour force to deliver the plant, which was completed in July.
The winner of the award was Emma Corbett, regional environmental manager with Hyder Consulting Middle East Ltd.
