Nice to meet you: Maryna Yushchenko

As a child, Maryna Yushchenko witnessed the water quality in her home city of Kyiv deteriorate year after year. This inspired her to focus her career on water management. Three years ago, she moved to the Netherlands to pursue that ambition. Today, she is in her third year of the Water Management programme at HZ University of Applied Sciences in Middelburg. She is specialising in spatial planning and design and is applying her skills as an intern at Partners for Water tackling international water challenges. Nice to meet you, Maryna!

Growing up in Kyiv, a city built on water, Maryna spent her childhood playing along the riverbanks. “It was really sad seeing the water quality deteriorating in my home city. Algae blooms increasingly polluted the river, eventually making the water so green that swimming was impossible for most of the summer season,” she explains. “This experience inspired me to dedicate my studies and career to water management.”

Spatial analysis to restore wetlands

At Partners for Water, Maryna is currently involved in a wetland reconnection project on the border of Thailand and Laos. In collaboration with WWF and Royal HaskoningDHV, the project aims to restore the link between the wetland area and the Mekong River using Nature-based Solutions (NbS). “Agricultural expansion and invasive plant species have led to the wetland’s gradual degradation and disconnection from the river,” explains Maryna. “My role involves spatial analysis and testing interventions that would reconnect the wetland with minimal disruption to the local communities.”

Working on global water management solutions

What drew Maryna to Partners for Water was its international focus. “I like that Partners for Water not only focuses on the Dutch water sector but also on international water management projects,” she says. This global perspective aligns perfectly with her own values about knowledge exchange. “I think it’s great that the Netherlands has so much expertise in the water sphere and I feel like sharing this expertise is so valuable for other countries like mine.”

Multidisciplinary collaboration

In addition to improving her mapping software skills, Maryna’s hopes to gain experience working and communicating in multidisciplinary teams. “Unlike my studies, where projects were tackled one at a time, my role at Partners for Water involves juggling multiple tasks simultaneously. This internship’s diverse projects really encourages me to adapt to different initiatives and work on my communications with various stakeholders.”

Ambitions for global sustainable water management

Maryna’s ultimate ambition goes beyond personal growth. “My biggest motivation is changing how water is viewed and treated around the world,” she shares. “In the Netherlands, water is seen as a really valuable resource. But, in many other parts of the world, it’s often treated as a nuisance.” She dreams of returning to Ukraine someday to apply innovative and sustainable water management principles. “I would love to bring the knowledge I have acquired here to Ukraine, to help change my home city and give water the value and respect it deserves.”