Lucy Chilver, Program Officer, Australian Water Partnership
eWater Group’s mission has always been to deliver sustainable water management solutions while sharing knowledge and experts in both Australia and internationally, and our people are central to achieving our mission.
Our organisation is made up of three divisions – eWater Solutions, the Australian Water Partnership, and Mekong Water Solutions – we are diverse and experienced, but most importantly we have a shared interest in supporting sustainable water management.
Lucy Chilver is our Program Officer, within the Australian Water Partnership (AWP), where she supports the delivery of several activities in the Mekong region.
Lucy has an interesting role within the AWP where no two days are the same; she engages and supports our partners, prepares for existing and future projects, and helps promote our work to our many stakeholders.
For Lucy, her role at the AWP marks the beginning of her industry experience after completing a Bachelor of Development Studies at the Australian National University. After almost a year in our organisation we are excited about the positive impact Lucy has had in her nine months and counting.
“I enjoy working as part of a team, I learn a lot from my colleagues and always feel supported. It is very rewarding to work for an organisation that is supporting countries to work towards sustainable water resource management.”
“I am excited to see where this role takes me, and very grateful for the opportunity to work for AWP early in my career.”
Working within the AWP enables Lucy the opportunity to connect and engage with our international partners, particularly in the Mekong where she was able to see first-hand the impact our activities are having in-country and offer new insights into how we can better support the region.
The Mekong region is particularly vulnerable to climate change, which poses a threat to water sustainability and exacerbates water scarcity. For Lucy, continuing to invest in the water sector is critical to addressing this threat.
“We need to evaluate options for climate adaptation and resilience, improve management practices, and develop new water-saving tools and methodologies.”
“It is also important to encourage cooperation and knowledge exchange so people can share experiences and lessons learned.”
Sharing diverse experiences and lessons is critical to making a real difference on climate change and water sustainability in the Mekong region, and of course, in Australia too.
At eWater Group we are committed to supporting our people to bring new insights, experiences, critical thinking, and knowledge to everything we do. As we say, our people are central to our organisation and help us deliver sustainable water management solutions in Australia and internationally.
Supporting more diversity in our workplace, and in the water sector as a whole, is key to encouraging more diverse thinking and approaches to protect our most precious resource, water.
For Lucy, creating more leadership roles for women and girls needs to be further encouraged as, “women can bring new and different perspectives to all kinds of problem-solving. From their particular experiences in accessing and using water at a community level, women and girls often have a profound understanding of the challenges posed by insecure access to quality water, and so their involvement can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of water project outcomes.”
We couldn’t agree more!
