Hello Bhupendra Bagad, where are you from? What have you studied?

Hello, I am from India presently I am pursuing masters in water engineering which is a joint programme between Hochschule Magdeburg and Universidad A Coruna. I have studied bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and have an experience of 3.5 years in manufacturing of water and waste water treatment equipment’s.

Why have you decided to study the Master in Water Engineering at the University of A Coruña?

My fascination towards Water Engineering started after my gradution when I started working as a QAC Engineer. Water treatment and its various expect caught my particular attention. The deeper I dwelled in the subject the more I was fascinated by it. While working I found that the skills at this level can be limiting at sometimes and requires more detailed studies recognizing this need has helped me in deciding to persue a Masters degree.

You have been doing your masters internship for two months in Viaqua. Could you tell us which tasks have you developed during this period? What are you enjoying the most about this experience?

My experience with Viaqua has been great. It took time for me in the beginning to dwell with the working culture as it was my first time working in Europe. Presently I am working on Inventory of Hydrants and Hydraulic Modelling of the water network on EPANET. I am enjoying learning various things about modelling the water network from my tutor Laura Roca Gonzalez . Presently I am studying Spanish language level A2 in USC , doing internship here has helped me to enhance my Spanish language skills while communicating with people. Having seen the other side of world I now have a better understanding of complex topics.

What do you think about the possibility of doing an internship in a business like Viaqua?

I have studied a semester in coruna and have heard about your reputation in the industry. Working at Viaqua has helped me to develop knowledge about technical things in detail and I am sure in the coming months I would have ample amount of knowledge about Hydraulic modelling of network. Speaking about the work culture the environment is very enthusiastic and warm there are lot of social activities conducted. I recently participated in the Ocean Initiatives event of the company and I I appreciate the social aspect of the company towards the society.

What differences do you see between the water service in Spain and in India?

I have been working in the Manufacturing of pipeline network while presently I am working on Hydraulic Modeling which I didn’t do before so its very hard to compare. In general the differences that I have seen so far is the working culture, the network is more sorted and less complicated as compared to india as there is a big population difference there are more consumers as compared to consumers here . Thus making the network more complicated and difficulties to model, monitor and maintain the network. Also, I have seen Viaqua uses different softwares which are a great tool in maintaining the network and are capable of operating the network efficiently

Do you usually drink tap water? Why?

Yes usually I drink tap water. The reason being the tap provides unlimited fresh water whenever needed. I have not seen any problems so far drinking tap water. Also, water bottled in plastic is a major contributor to plastic waste only 10% is recycled and the rest is dumped which eventually breaks down into microplastic ending up in the ecosystem. Drinking bottled water also have a hefty carbon footprint associated with it. Drinking tap water has the environmental impact as close to zero and I would like to continue drinking tap water as far it is hygienic and doesn’t effect my health.

Yes usually I drink tap water here in Europe as well as in India. In India there are small purification units installed at homes to ensure a good quality of drinking water the quality of drinking water also depends on place to place there are some places where the quality of water is not upto the standards and I would prefer consuming bottled water in such places due to hygienic reasons.