Somy Bhattarai

Water Sector

My experience working in the water sector, especially with rivers, has been both challenging and deeply rewarding. During my Master's thesis in 2024, my friends and I had to travel long distances, walking up and down along the Arun and Tamor River with bottles of water samples and empty stomachs. The river water could not help us, but it taught us the realities of field research.

Collecting samples was physically demanding. We carried heavy instruments, stayed on hot riverbanks with Wai Wai and sand dust, waded into the water to gather samples, and walked off-road through risky gravel roads that were even worse during monsoon. Every step required careful planning and teamwork, and despite the fatigue, the hands-on experience taught me lessons no classroom ever could. Who knew fieldwork could feel like an extreme sport?

Back at the lab, the challenges continued. We spent hours managing limited chemicals and equipment, sometimes fighting with colleagues, and carefully analyzing our samples, which honestly I did not enjoy much. Then came data analysis, another mental marathon, but it gave meaning to all the effort we had put into the field.

Overall, working in the water sector is not easy. It tests patience, endurance, and problem-solving skills. The combination of fieldwork, lab experiments, and data analysis gave me a deep appreciation for research, teamwork, and the real-world impact careful water management can have on communities and ecosystems. All of this helped me meet my first Bhattarai et al.