In the far north of South Australia, towns rely on a handful of regional water treatment plants to get safe water out of the tap. Caitlyn Obst is one of the people keeping an eye on them.
Caitlyn is a Treatment Process Officer at SA Water. She provides technical expertise and water quality advice for those regional plants, which in practice means monitoring water quality and running investigations to help the plants perform better. She’s also part of the Australian Water Association‘s Young Water Professionals network.
We asked her why students should give water a look, what’s exciting her in the industry right now, and what she’d like your generation to fix.
Not just for scientists
If you assume the water industry is all lab coats and test tubes, Caitlyn would like to widen the picture.
“The water sector is such a huge industry and it’s continually growing,” she says. “It encompasses a variety of disciplines from science, engineering, IT, environment, business, and so many others.”
The work is just as varied. Depending on your role, you could be building new infrastructure, running community engagement, working on research projects or teaming up with other organisations across the sector. And whatever you’re doing, it comes back to something people can’t live without. Caitlyn points to the chance to support the community and make a difference to the environment and public health as one of the biggest draws.
The innovation hiding in the sludge
Ask Caitlyn about the coolest thing happening in water right now and she doesn’t go for anything flashy. She goes for sludge.
At treatment plants, raw water is dosed with aluminium sulphate, known as alum. It reacts with tiny particles in the water and clumps them together into larger flocs, which are much easier to remove. The catch is that all of it ends up in lagoons as sludge, and that sludge gets thrown away.
One project Caitlyn has been following is looking at how to recover alum from that sludge so it can be used again. “If we’re able to recover large amounts of alum from this sludge, we can significantly reduce chemical wastage,” she says. “There’s also lots of interesting chemistry behind that as well.”
Where water meets climate change
Few industries feel a changing climate as directly as water. Less rain, hotter summers and more extreme weather all show up in the supply.
“The water industry is heavily affected by the changing climate, so a lot of work is being done to help tackle climate change,” Caitlyn says.
That work takes a lot of forms. Some people protect source water through better land management. Others focus on cutting the industry’s emissions, or contribute to climate research locally, nationally and internationally. And a big part of the job is securing water supplies that don’t depend on rainfall, like desalinated and recycled water, so communities have enough to go around whatever the weather does.
A problem with your name on it
The challenge Caitlyn would most like the next generation to take on is population growth. More people means more demand, and the industry is already feeling it.
“It doesn’t just affect our infrastructure,” she says. “It also affects our rivers and reservoirs as each year we’re using more and more water.”
There’s no neat answer yet, which is exactly why she’s putting it out there. “I’d love to see what you guys can come up with to help tackle this.”
Find your way into water
If any of that got you thinking, the Australian Water Association is the place to go next. As Australia’s largest water network, AWA brings together people working across utilities, government, research and business, and it runs Careers in Water, a hub built to help people find their way into the sector.
You’ll find career resources, job vacancies and stories from people like Caitlyn who are already doing the work. And once you’re studying, AWA student membership and its Young Water Professionals network can connect you with mentors, events and people who’ve been exactly where you are.
Explore careers in water with the Australian Water Association.
