“I understood that we needed the industry,” Priyal says, “but also understood the impact to the environment. I was always a hands-on type of person who preferred to find a solution, rather than complain about the problem. So, I became a chemical engineer to try to influence changes from within the industries.”
Priyal studied at the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Durban campus. Being based in one of South Africa’s smaller cities, and wanting to spend holidays at home, meant that her opportunities to gain the work experience required to complete her degree were very limited. “But I was able to find vacation work with Umgeni Water, with the scientific services team, and that is where my interest in water started,” she recalls.
“Prof. Chris Buckley from the Pollution Research Group at the University also had a huge influence on my career choices,” Priyal continues. “I worked on a water treatment process that looked at treating waste from dense peri-urban settlements, and working with the Pollution Research Group meant that I was exposed to various water treatment and water management approaches. Learning about cleaner production, water pinch, lifecycle assessments, nature-based solutions and so on, I knew that I wanted to apply my skills to help improve the state of our water resources.”
Early in her career, Priyal worked with a mining and environmental company where she worked on water studies and environmental permitting for the mining industry. Here, she had the opportunity to work with a specialist team, including Francois Marais and Nico Bezuidenhout - from then Golder - to investigate various approaches on improving downstream water quality.
“I was impressed by the systematic manner in which this group worked out a solution to fix the sins of the past, without having to put in a huge investment to try to undo something that was done more than 30 years ago,” she says. “Being able to find practical solutions, taking the adapted ecosystem into account, was exactly what I wanted to do. I applied for a job with Golder, and I’ve been having fun working as a solutions provider since then.” I worked with various teams over the years, but always found my way back to Trevor Coleman in the Water Resource Engineering group. Looking back, I’m grateful to Golder for giving me the opportunity to gain experience with different departments, from permitting and closure to catchment management, water treatment and water and salt balances. I now try to tie this all together under the water stewardship banner. Now that we are WSP, we’re able to cast our nets wider and make a bigger difference.
Priyal describes herself as a “mum first”, and her day usually starts with getting her children ready for school and making sure that they have what they need for the day. Once at work, Priyal engages with several teams providing input on a variety of projects.
“I enjoy working with other teams, and taking on a mentorship role,” Priyal says. And when she needs to focus on her own technical work or reports, she blocks out time for it. “Seeing the recommendations that we make in reports and workshops being implemented, and being able to quantify the water savings and improvements in the environment that our recommendations lead to, is the most satisfying part of my job,” Priyal says. “It’s really exciting to see mining companies moving towards continuous improvement.”
For Priyal, a good balance between analytical thinking and creativity is key to driving change in any field of engineering.
Priyal recalls: “Early in my career, I argued with an older engineer who told me that a good engineer should not be creative. I’ve been told a few times that engineers are not meant to be creative. Now, I understand that we need a balance of both. Depending on the task at hand, we do need the engineers that choose not to bring in any creativity, often at the execution phase. But for engineers who need to push the boundaries and come up with innovative solutions, creativity is an important part of what we do.”
