May 5, 2021
Schulich grad student bridges gaps for Indigenous water treatment operators
It鈥檚 something many of us take for granted 鈥 clean drinking water.
You turn on the tap and it鈥檚 there. Yet more than 30,000 Canadians can鈥檛 say that, and most are Indigenous.
has made it her mission to expose the inequality, but to also connect those communities and water operators to share information and access training videos through .
鈥淥ne of our core values is sustainability,鈥 she says. 鈥淲e see this initiative as a continuous cycle 鈥 operators tell us what they would like to see different, we produce the content, and repeat.鈥
Malekian has been applauded for her work, including being named to the and L鈥橭real鈥檚 Women of Worth.
Bita Malekian was a nominee in L'Oreal's Women of Worth campaign.
Recently, she was also recognized with the Graduate Student Sustainability Award through the .
Inspiring change
Malekian graduated from the Schulich School of Engineering in 2018 with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in mechanical engineering and immediately immersed herself in her first job with an energy company.
She says being taught by Dr. Ron Hugo, PhD, was one of her most rewarding experiences at Schulich, but it also opened her eyes to the world outside of her career.
鈥淭hrough his experimental learning method, we were taught how to apply our base knowledge and critical-thinking skills to innovate,鈥 Malekian said. 鈥淚t was in his courses where I discovered the value of collaboration.鈥
She joined the , where she became aware of some of the issues facing Indigenous water facilities and operators. Those conversations led to meetings with people like Warren Brown at the Lytton First Nation and Deon Hassler from the Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation.
鈥淭hey are everyday heroes in their communities,鈥 Malekian says. 鈥淭heir knowledge and expertise have made them admirable and prominent leaders in the water sector. They鈥檙e the ones doing all the work.鈥
Building relationships
In Malekian鈥檚 eyes, the relationships being built with the communities and the operators are based on reliability and trust.
She and the Water Movement team have spent countless hours visiting with them and seeing their day-to-day challenges. While they aren鈥檛 new problems, they needed to find a way to finally address the gaps.
鈥淭hey work long hours and, on-site, they don鈥檛 have the time to set up a camera and film the best way to perform a maintenance procedure,鈥 she says. 鈥淣or do they have time to design a website where they can connect and collaborate, outside of regional Facebook pages.鈥
While her efforts haven鈥檛 gone unnoticed, Malekian is hesitant about the accolades she has received.
鈥淚t鈥檚 bittersweet because, quite frankly, this issue shouldn鈥檛 exist in the first place,鈥 she says. 鈥淲e are a G7/G8/G20 country, we have one of the largest freshwater reservoirs in the world, and yet we still have all these people without access to clean drinking water.鈥
Calling it a violation of human rights, Malekian says Indigenous communities are affected most by this crisis, so she is making it a priority to use the recognition as a way to keep raising awareness about the issue.
She adds that once the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, Water Movement will be visiting with more operators across the country and filming their knowledge, with the goal of expanding its video learning library.
鈥淲ith less than 10 years to go in achieving the United Nations鈥 Sustainable Development goals, we need to come together to solve some of society's most complex issues,鈥 Malekian says. 鈥淎nd engineers play a big role in that.鈥
Bita Malekian is in the final days of her MEng and is set to graduate in June with a degree in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering with Energy and Environment Specialization. She says she enrolled in the program because it offered options to take water-focused courses. "The program helped me gain insight on some of the technical aspects involved with water treatment facilities."
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