Water Conservation

STUDENT FEEDBACK - Water Conservation and Management

It is always great to hear what our students are doing - Joanna Vos is studying our Water Management and Conservation course. Here’s what she has to say -

My name is Joanna Vos, BSc Hons, Environment (Open) and I have a passion for the environment. The biggest difficulty is deciding which is the most important interest to follow. I am currently living in Oman and since water is the most important environmental issue we have worldwide and even more so in a country that has a rapidly growing population in the desert; I figured Water Management and Conservation is the perfect course. I have not long started but I find it very enjoyable.

I am originally from Cardiff, Wales where I went to Namibia in 1992 with Raleigh International, on return I choose to run the support group for Wales voluntarily for 10 years, this was the start of my interest in the environment and working with young people and for exploring the wonders of world. In 1997 I lived in Australia for 6 years, working as the Executive Officer for The Duke of Edinburgh's Award. I saw some incredible changes in young people’s lives and how I could help enhance their lives by encouraging skills, sports, adventure and donating your time to a community project. I then moved to Holland for 6 years which is where I met my husband Arjan, whilst working for Environment and Social Performance in Shell. In my spare time I had twin boys, Dominic and Hayden and completed a degree at the Open University UK and moved again to France.

After my last course where I choose to find ways to make my home more sustainable as part of my final website towards my degree. I then had the energy and knowledge to put projects into practice and my whole family helped to put many measures into place to make our land and home more sustainable https://sites.google.com/site/laportegites/sustainablechoices. One of these projects was water collection where all roof water is collected and all our waste water runs through a reed bed system (which we made ourselves) and this water drip irrigates our beautiful garden.

We moved to Oman in August 2011, I had a clean plate and no job. So I basically volunteered for Scouts, did my BSAC diving course, became equipment officer for the astronomy society and the Environmental Society. I made presentations such as one I did on water conservation and gave it to the teacher of my son’s school and asked if I could teach the children about water conservation. It was a great success and I gave the presentation to the teachers to use in other classes I also gave it to ESO http://www.eso.org.om/ to use as part of their environmental education program. We did a tour of the school looking water leaks and now they drive their parents mad if they see them wasting water :) I do the same for scouts, we talked about general environmental issues and do some project work such as collecting rubbish on the beaches. I volunteer to plant mangrove trees, collect rubbish, hassle fishermen and governments about sustainable fishing and anything else I can keep myself busy with.

I would say my success and enjoyment for life is always to volunteer for something in your spare time, it can lead to endless opportunities and always study something.

ACS has tons of interesting courses, its lovely to read a novel but it’s so much nicer to understand the way things work! I plan to do lots of courses while I am here, especially as Shell is kind enough to pay for my studies.

I hope you are enjoying your studies, a bit of extra effort makes all the difference in life

Joanna Vos