Nirupama Nair from India holds a Master’s degree in civil engineering with a focus on sanitation science and management. She is enrolled in the new Master’s programme “Sustainable Water Management and Engineering” and is one of the Germany Scholarship holders who receive support from the Wilo-Foundation.

Nirupama is from Karala Sate in southern India, on the western coast of the Indian peninsula. In the interview, she told us that her experiences in her home region have stayed with her. “In the region I come from I was confronted on a daily basis with challenges in the area of water, sanitation and hygiene, and so many countries are struggling with these challenges, including my home country.” She said that her Master’s degree in India had enabled her to develop a holistic understanding of decentralised sanitation systems and made her realise the importance of initiating behavioural changes and raising awareness of sanitation issues through communication.

She told us that she had chosen the Master’s programme at Hof University of Applied Sciences because this was a perfect match for her previous degree and enabled her to build on her expertise. She said what interested her was pursuing a holistic academic education in the field of water and sanitation that also included sustainability concepts and project management aspects: “The urgency of the water and sanitation crisis requires immediate action. Our global water cycle has been severely disrupted and our relationship with water is becoming increasingly dynamic, so we need to address acute water shortages and water-related hazards such as flooding at the same time. We have seen with many recent water-related disasters that water management needs to become more sustainable, context-specific and dynamic.”

She also talked about her special interest in sustainability and technical aspects of water management and emphasised the importance of taking a holistic approach: “My area of interest is where different aspects come together: the increasingly close relationship between social development, nature and natural resources, for instance the concepts of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) and integrated aquaculture. A sustainable way of thinking is the only way to create a solid basis for measures to address the water challenges we are facing”, Nair explained.

After her studies, she wants to work as a WASH expert (WASH: water, sanitation, hygiene) and use her knowledge to develop solutions that take into account both social and ecological aspects. “I intend to combine my communication skills and my technical knowledge in order to raise awareness of this issue and contribute to building a future where people have universal access to water and sanitation facilities.”

This text is based on an interview that David Höltgen (Wilo-Foundation) conducted with Nirupama Nair, a scholarship holder in Hof, in May 2023. We would like to thank Nirupama for taking the time for our interview and wish her every success for her further career.