Today we’d like to introduce you to Mashal Awais.
Hi Mashal, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Water is all around us, but our narrative and experience of water is shifting – from the poetic writings from yesterday romanticizing our rivers to their polluted present. Growing up, I always wondered what caused this shift? From water gardens to raw sewage running through the city, to flooding and the inaccessibility of clean water, often times our water issues in a globalized world are similar and water accessibility is not something our generation can take for granted.
After years of studying science and learning from all types of incredible mentors and community members, bouncing between consulting roles and volunteer work, I currently work as the Community Science Manager doing what I love at Bayou City Waterkeeper. I work alongside community members, look at data and data to action frameworks to support our most vulnerable communities from the harmful effects of pollution and flooding, while protecting what we have here, in the Bayou City: our rivers, our bayous, our wetlands and our beautiful coast.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Addressing environmental racism and climate justice in the petrochemical and energy capital of the world is its own roller coaster! We’re in the belly of the beast as one of my mentors calls it 😀
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I look at sewage data a lot – haha seriously. To explain that a little more – we have raw sewage being released into our waterways, bayous, and eventually Galveston Bay. We recently collaborated on a ‘Justice in the Sewers’ project which maps the sewage overflows in Houston and visualizes environmental pollution against indicators such as household income and race. It shows you what you might already suspect: wealthier neighborhoods have swimming pools in their backyards and no sewage backing up, while communities of color are experiencing sewage overflows in their communities and having a hard time paying their water utilities. This is one example of environmental racism as it shows up in our city.
What I think is unique at Bayou City Waterkeeper is that we work to support communities utilizing science and law, and ensure community voices are at the center of our work, always informing us and guiding our strategy.
I recently heard a quote that inspires me to think of our work this way: ‘the magic happens at the intersection of environmental/legal work and organizing’. I like to imagine our work brings a little bit of magic to Houston and hopefully a lot of clean water 😀 What I’m super proud of is the collaborative team that I work with – truly I think I have the best coworkers that just get it.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Probably pretty quiet in school with very few close friends and then had a lot of cousins who were and are my best friends and was around a lot of art, music, etc. Don’t ask me what I listen to now, ha. Nursery rhymes in Spanish for my nine months old is my current Spotify playlist!
Contact Info:
