Evelien Rietdijk

YEP period 2020 - 2022, batch 19

Young Expert at Solar Works - Mozambique

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First position after YEP

Looking for a job in the water sector

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YEP Role

As a ‘manager of irrigation technologies’, I work for SolarWorks! in Nampula, Mozambique. SolarWorks! wants to support smallholder farmers with off-grid water pumps that are powered through a renewable energy source. It is my job to help build this new product portfolio and to establish and manage the implementation. I lead a market study to assess the potential of introducing solar-powered water pumps to smallholder farmers, lead the design of a product portfolio, and organize the sales and implementation of the systems in the field.

Skills

• Social-science field research
• Hydrological field measurements
• QGIS and hydrological modeling

 

Background

Nationality: Dutch

Education:

• BSc. Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
• MSc. Civil Engineering –Water Management, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

 

Experience before YEP

Before YEP I worked at two different water authorities in the Netherlands. During my studies, I assisted as a junior water manager in the Monitoring & Data management team with both field and office work. Thereafter I worked as a policy officer with the water planning team on the optimisation of internal organisational processes around the mapping database.

 

For my master thesis, I used a participatory planning approach to support the sustainable development of smallholder farmer irrigation practices from an alluvial aquifer in Southern Zimbabwe.