Instagram ‘A day in the life of a YWP’ Takeover in support of National Water Week

In the face of a world undergoing rapid changes in response to COVID-19, we have all had to adapt to a new way of life.

In Melbourne, we’ve all faced and conquered adversity and adjusted our working life to fit into this new normal. Working from home is no longer a rarity, but a daily occurrence for many Melburnians, yet no day is the same for any two people.

With National Water Week running from 19-23 October, our Young Water Professionals (YWPs) are here to help show how they have reimagined their water future while in their COVID normal.

Come join us over on the AWA Instagram account to meet five of our YWPs, who are showing how they are supporting National Water Week and inspiring individuals, communities and organisations in building awareness around the value of water.

Each day a different YWP will be taking over the AWA Instagram Story and treating us to "a day in the life of a YWP". Feel free to interact and engage with them throughout the week.

Our YWPs:

Alice Greco is a civil engineer who is passionate about looking after what we have to ensure we don’t impact on our future. She currently works as the interface between Melbourne Water and the Level Crossing Removal Project, ensuring Melbourne Water's assets, services and floodplains are protected and unaffected during the project’s design and construction process. She sees reimagining our water future as working together to see new ways we can shape a more sustainable and economical water future for us all.

Celeste Ward is a Process Engineer in the Water Group at Stantec in Melbourne, and has more than six years’ experience in water and wastewater treatment. She is the National Developing Professionals Group Lead at Stantec and past Chair of the VIC AWA YWP Committee and ran the Ozwater’19 YWP Conference. When thinking of re-imagining our water future, she thinks of access to clean, safe water and sanitation for everyone, regardless of gender or where they live. Celeste sees our water future as being based on carbon positive treatment plants, where biogas and biosolids are harvested for reuse and recycled water is the new norm.

Dom Murray-Fiume is a civil engineer working in Stantec’s water group. He’s passionate about building genuine relationships to drive collaborative problem solving in the water industry and is experienced in water and wastewater network planning, civil design and project management. His interpretation of this year’s theme, "reimagining our water future", is that it is a call to arms for all water professionals actively engage in educating the broader community. Improved water literacy will equip our communities to fully appreciate how individual behaviour and government policy impact the long-term security of our most valuable resource.

Emma Hodson is an environmental consultant with Alluvium Consulting, based in Melbourne. She specialises in catchment and coastal management, geomorphology, and spatial analysis. She believes reimagining our water future is all about working together to create a sustainable water future — whether that be by collaborating with others to enact change, by everyone doing the smalls things to create a big difference, or by encouraging diverse ideas to foster innovative solutions, no one can do it alone.

Ali Rahimi is an engineering professional passionate about the water industry. He works at Aqua Metro Services as a Project Manager/Project Engineer placing special attention on ways to create positive change and optimise risk. Ali thinks that this year’s National Water Week theme, "reimagining our water future", is about building partnerships and the knowledge base to derive maximum financial, social and environmental value.