Inspiring the Future role model, India Eiloart, gives us an insight into her mahi as a water resources engineer and her pathway to get there.
Kia ora koutou, Ko Remutaka te maunga, Ko Te Moana-O-Raukawa te moana, Nō Te Motu Kairangi ahau, E noho ana au ki Taratahi, Ko Eiloart tōku whānau, ko India tōku ingoa.
I’m a water resources engineer working as a Senior Technical Advisor for Taumata Arowai, the water regulator for Aotearoa New Zealand. I grew up in windy Wellington and am now living in the Wairarapa, the home of ‘glistening waters’, and work with people all across the motu.
I’ve previously worked across the motu helping people understand and interact with the water around them, such as making sure they have safe drinking water or are safe when a flood occurs.
I use this knowledge to advise, train and support the organisation to achieve their objectives of protecting the water and those who drink it.
I have loved and cared for the environment since I was a kid and have always felt strongly that all people have the right to be safe and healthy.
I was also interested in learning how things work and problem solving, which led me to the field of engineering.
I combined these all and began my career as an environmental engineer, working on many different water projects and learning lots of different skills, until I found my place here at Taumata Arowai.
I studied biology, physics and chemistry at high school. I also took calculus for engineering, and English, which has become enormously useful when researching and communicating my work.
I graduated from the University of Canterbury with an honours degree in Natural Resources Engineering, and began as a graduate environmental engineer in an international engineering consultancy. I learnt about many different types of issues we have when working with water. I learnt about engineering design, hydraulic modelling, water quality and hydrology, and eventually found the topic I was most interested in, drinking water safety. I pursued projects in this field and gathered knowledge on related fields, and today I help other people learn, as well as continuing to research and learn myself.
It can look different every day!
Some days I’m out on a site visit, meeting drinking water suppliers and looking around their supply from the catchment through to the community. I work to understand their operations, priorities and challenges in providing safe drinking water to people.
I also spend a good chunk of time at a desk, analysing and assessing information or meeting with people who are asking for technical expertise and advice for their work. When there is an emergency, like the recent cyclone in the North Island, I join the team of people working to make sure people have safe drinking water.
I am helping people every day, whether it is the person sitting next to me at work or communities across the country. I work with people with lots of different backgrounds and knowledge, so when I can share my knowledge with them, and help them learn something new, it’s a great feeling.
I work with a huge range of people with different skills and expertise. You don’t have to have an engineering degree to be involved in the water industry. Making safe drinking water needs so many different people, from treatment plant operators to environmental lawyers, data gurus to roading contractors, microbiologists to project managers, they are all needed to get everyone safe drinking water. I’m just one of many and I’m honoured to be a part of it, and there’s lots of different ways people can join us.
There are lots of different ways to contribute to a field or industry that you’re fascinated by. Everything that you interact with, experience, see or do, will have required a huge range of people with many skills.
I am really glad that I studied engineering, as I have acquired some excellent skills that I can use in so many different ways, but I want more people to see the many different paths you can take into this industry.
Pursue what you are good at and from there you can find the path to what you are most interested in.
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