Mohammad Hamid Hamdard

I am a postdoctoral researcher working on Sustainable Water Management and Agricultural Resilience in the Headwaters of the Amu Darya Basin, under the supervision of Professor Ali Torabi Haghighi. I have completed my Ph.D. at the Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering Unit of the University of Oulu, where my doctoral research focused on drinking water quality assessment in Afghanistan, supervised by Professor Bjørn Kløve and Professor Ali Torabi Haghighi. Every drop of water can shape a life. I come from a region of Afghanistan where water was scarce but desperately needed. The summer of 2003 was marked by a severe drought, every living being was struggling to find enough water to survive. As a young student, I would return from high school with dry lips and a dust covered face, and together with my sisters, mother and my elderly grandmother, we walked long distances to collect drinking water. Those same buckets also kept the trees of our small garden alive trees that had offered us fruit and shade for years.

Water scarcity often led to tension in our village. Whenever a small flow appeared in the irrigation channels, disputes would erupt among community members, each trying to save their own crops and trees. One day, I found myself in the middle of such a conflict. A disagreement over water with a villager escalated into a physical confrontation. Although regrettable, that moment became a turning point in my life. It sparked fundamental questions in my mind: Where does water come from? How is it managed? Why does scarcity lead to conflict? These questions shaped my academic journey. After finishing high school, I pursued higher education with a growing determination to understand water, its quality, management, and its role in justice and human well being. Those early hardships ultimately carried me from the dry landscapes of Afghanistan to the snow covered north of Finland. In 2023, I completed my Ph.D. in water quality in Finland.

Today, when I look out at the Finnish winter from my office window, I remember the trees we once kept alive with bucketed water. I know that the roots of my academic path and professional commitment were nourished by those early experiences of drought, conflict, and resilience. They have grown into a deep sense of responsibility.

every drop of water can determine a destiny, saving a life in one place, or becoming the cause of conflict in another. Protecting water, valuing it, and preventing its waste is, ultimately, an act of saving lives.