I am currently working in Karachi, Pakistan with a local organisation of engineers and other technical staff. We provide engineering assistance primarily for not-for-profit organisations.
In particular I have been involved in several reconstruction projects after the 2010 countrywide flooding; including latrine construction, low-cost housing design, IDP camp sanitation facilities, and hydroelectric channel reconstruction.
I have performed this work while on leave from my Australian employer GHD, and they have continued to provide technical support to my projects in Pakistan.
I have always wanted to use my engineering skills for development work. In particular since I began working in water engineering and learning of the huge number of people worldwide living in poor sanitary conditions.
I decided to undertake this time overseas early in my career as to gain some basic experience working in the developing world, which I can integrate into my future experience back in Australia.
At the end of high school I chose to study Civil Engineering, but I did not have a specific field of interest within Civil Engineering and was unaware of many of the potential fields of work after completion of my studies. While at university my interest became more focused on water engineering; as I enjoyed studying it and could see the importance of water engineering on the global scale.
After university I began work in Australia and my interest in water & sanitation development work continued to grow. As such I decided to take leave from my Australian employer and take up my current 1 year position in Pakistan.
