REAL-Water Staff Highlight — Aline Saraiva Okello

💼 Position: Regional engagement coordinator for East Africa | 🤝 Partner: RWSN | 📍: Kenya

Bio

Aline is a passionate water expert, with a PhD and MSc in Hydrology and Water Resources from IHE-Delft, Netherlands. She has a wide experience in the water sector ranging from water resources management to water supply and sanitation in both urban and rural spaces. Currently, Aline works as the global network manager of the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN), hosted by the Skat Foundation. The network comprises practitioners and professionals in the water sector and engages in knowledge sharing, knowledge management, capacity building, and advocacy for water professionals and development partners focused in rural areas. She is also the regional engagement coordinator for East Africa of the USAID-funded REAL-Water program.

Aline has received fellowships from the prestigious Schlumburger Faculty of the Future program, L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Sub-Saharan Africa, International Foundation for Science (Sweden), and Ford Foundation. She was also shortlisted for the Africa Prize of Engineering Innovation organized by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom. She was also part of the first cohort of UNLEASH Lab 2017 in Denmark.

Aline has worked in a consulting, research, and entrepreneur capacity on a variety of projects over the last 15 years. She has published a range of research works in the water space. She can speak Portuguese and English fluently and has a working knowledge of Spanish, French, and Swahili. After completing her Doctorate Aline went on to join the University of Zululand as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in 2019 to conduct research funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Innovation Post-Doctoral Fellowship and International Foundation for Science (IFS) Sweden. She looked at Innovative and low-cost technology to address water security in Zululand. In the project, she worked with several development organizations to identify sustainable solutions to the water crisis in rural areas of KwaZulu Natal.

For her PhD, she worked with several organizations within the interdisciplinary research project RISKOMAN (Risk-based operational water management on the Incomati River Basin). This project was financed by the Water Research Commission of South Africa (WRC) and IHE Delft Partnership Research Fund (UPaRF, Netherlands). Her role in the above project included hydrological modeling, research, fieldwork, capacity building, project management, and financial reporting.

What do you do for REAL-Water?

RWSN was commissioned with the task of managing and implementing the REAL_Water engagement strategy. My role is to support the engagement component on a global and local level.

• The management of global engagement – keeping close contact with key development partners, funders, banks, bilaterals, multilateral, and foundations at the global scale;

• The coordination of local engagement in the countries where REAL Water research is taking place or where case studies are being implemented. We keep track of what the research teams are doing in terms of local engagement to coordinate with the global level engagement and ensure alignment of project activities.

To accomplish these objectives, we keep close contact with the REAL-Water research teams and disseminate, promote, and amplify the messages from REAL-Water within the RWSN membership.

Furthermore, in the coming months, we will engage our membership in webinars and e-discussions to inform and consult on REAL Water research activities and country experiences. Our work aims to ensure that the research conducted is aligned with the real needs practitioners and development partners have. And we also facilitate feedback to the research teams through our networking events and communications.

Why did you get into the field?

I started my first-degree studies in Civil Engineering, but soon I got interested in the problems of the water sector. Growing up in Mozambique, we always faced water-related challenges – frequent water cuts due to technical issues of our service provider; flooding during the rainy season; drought, and water scarcity in the dry season – I always wondered why we couldn’t manage our water resources better – save it when we had a lot, to use when there was scarcity.

I decided to pursue Masters in Hydrology and Water Resources to learn more solutions to these problems. I first thought the problem was mostly a technological one. The more I studied, the more I understood that it wasn’t just about technology. We also had huge gaps in financing, governance, and capacity. I decided to focus more on the rural water space and did more research on Rainwater Harvesting (a Post-Doc in South Africa, Zululand University), which is a technology with great potential, but limited uptake in many countries.

I got the opportunity to join RWSN in 2021, and ever since, I’ve learned that even more elements are crucial to having functional and sustainable water services. I now know also that it is very important to understand local contexts – there are no silver bullets to solve water problems – each solution needs to be customized and adapted to the context where it will be used – otherwise, we are forever increasing the graveyard of non-functioning water infrastructure. It is important to involve and work with communities from the start of water projects, to better understand their needs, and create solutions with them that can be sustained in the long run.

What do you see in the future of rural water?

I see that rural water is finally starting to get the attention it needs, and the challenges are being better studied, documented, and reported. For example, we are also seeing a growth in innovative solutions to these challenges. I’m very excited about the REAL-Water, REACH Programme because they are looking deeper at sustainability and innovation issues to support evidence-based decision-making in rural water.

I see great innovation in financing – especially through micro-financing and supported self-supply. There is an understanding of the importance of insurance to de-risk, further protect the most vulnerable from climate shocks and improve their resilience.

We have also seen some innovations in technology to abstract water, test water quality, deliver water, power water systems, and use modern technology, such as the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, to better predict system behaviors and inform planning, maintenance, and operation activities.

There is also a trend in the use of technology for capacity building, which I hope will assist the sector in increasing much-needed qualified individuals to tackle the various rural water challenges.

What is something people do not know about you?

People that do not know me personally might not know that I have four children and did my PhD while having three of them. I juggle raising the family with my work and career – this has been extremely challenging at times, but I’m very grateful that I was able to combine and advance on both fronts.

What’s the best piece of advice you have ever received? 

This is a difficult one – I’ve had very useful advice from various friends and mentors. But one that has served me a lot is to remember that “I don’t have to do anything – I get to do it.” The perspective with which we face our work and our responsibilities makes a big difference. It is important to keep a positive outlook on things and remember it is a privilege and honor that we have to be alive in this day and age. Therefore, we need to have a good attitude and do our best while respecting our limits. Self-care is also very important: sleep, exercise, and cultivate meaningful relationships.

In collaboration with USAID.