The primary objective of the Jal Jeevan Mission is to ensure that every rural household in India has access to a functional tap water connection, a challenge of mammoth proportions !

Basavanandayya Sureban, our next pathbreaker, Assistant Engineer-Water at SJ-SMEC, provides technical design assistance to the Rural Water Supply & Sanitation department Karnataka that provides drinking water to communities.

Basavanandayya talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about his work in helping prioritize the provision of FHTCs  (Functional Household Tap Connection) in quality affected areas, villages in drought prone and desert areas etc.

For students, Civil and Environmental engineering are upcoming and impactful fields especially in a country like India.

Basava, can you share your background with our young readers?

My name is Basava. I am from Naragund, Gadag District, Karnataka. I have done my Engineering in Civil from TCE Gadag. I am currently pursuing a Masters in Waste Water Management, Health and Safety Engineering at VTU Belgavi.

My parents own a business. My initial interest was to become a Police Officer soon after completing my engineering. In the year 2020, I started to prepare for the examination. I cleared the physical examination as well. Due to some loopholes in the government, all the 545 Sub-Inspector posts were already booked by other candidates and they even got their offer letter without filling anything in the OMR sheet as they spent around 1 crore each for one post. Due to this job scam, the case went to the high court and the case was running for around 3+ years.

It was already more than 3 years for me without a job. So I gave up my dream of becoming a police officer and joined L&T Construction at Hubballi. As I had lost my father due to Covid, I stayed near my mother and sister. I got Rs 13000/month of which I couldn’t save even a single rupee. I worked there for around 1 year and later moved to Bangalore for a job.

What did you do for graduation/post-graduation?

I did my BE in Civil and Masters in Waste Water Management, Health and Safety Engineering

What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional, and unique career in Civil Engineering?

Firstly, it was failure in examinations (Sub-Inspector)

The turning point was after joining a new company which was a breakthrough for me.

Can you tell us about your career path?

As I have explained earlier, I joined L&T Construction as a Site Engineer, and though I spent around one year working there, my technical learning was completely ZERO.

Why? Because it was a site job and most of the work was bringing petrol, diesel materials, and shoes for labourers staying at the site continuously for 2 days without food. I was not a permanent employee at L&T and the permanent employees treated me like shit.

One fine day my friend told me about a job opening in an advertisement, and I happened to apply for that and fortunately I got selected.

I learnt AutoCAD and Revit from UDEMY, frequently checked LinkedIn and Naukri apps for job search.

I was not happy at my first job as I have explained above.

I got many friends who helped me in learning new technical things at SJ-SMEC

There was around 3.5 years of gap after completing my graduation (2020 to 2023) when I was preparing for the police exam, during which I had forgotten all the technical things which I had learnt in my college. So it was very difficult for me to understand what exactly was going on .So I relied on YouTube to learn about the technical stuff, and it took some time for me to learn the things.

How did you get your first break?

I was working at L&T Hubballi and I had already spent around one year but I learnt nothing. One fine day my friend shared a job posting and I happened to apply for that, and fortunately I got selected. It was my career break

What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?

I had zero technical knowledge as I had around 3 year’s career gap. I had no knowledge about any civil related software, and because of this I had no confidence.

I was completely ashamed of myself for forgetting all the technical learnings. As a reason I faced a lot of humiliation from my managers.

So I started to refer to YouTube video lectures from various lectures like

1. Rajashekhar Malagihal (who runs a free video series for civil engineering students)

2. Jaspal Sir (ex IAS officer who has a separate video playlist for civil engineering subjects).

By referring to the video lectures from both, I got my basics strong and eventually it boosted my confidence as well

Where do you work currently?

Currently, I am working at SJ-SMEC as an ASSISTANT ENGINEER-WATER

What problems do you solve?

SMEC (Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation) is a private organisation based in Australia. SURBANA JUROUNG is its parent company head quartered in Singapore.

SJ-SMEC is a civil consultancy company providing services in the following sectors
Aviation, Transportation, Water, Waste water, renewable energy solutions, Dams, Bridges etc.

SMEC has projects running in both International and Domestic countries. Currently I’m working in domestic projects (Indian Projects) and the project which I’m working is Jal Jal Jeevan Mission and the objectives of this mission is to provide FHTC (Functional Household Tap Connection) to every rural household.

  • To prioritize provision of FHTCs in quality affected areas, villages in drought prone and desert areas, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) villages, etc.
  • To provide functional tap connection to Schools, Anganwadi centres, GP buildings, Health centres, wellness centres and community buildings
  • To monitor functionality of tap connections.
  • To promote and ensure voluntary ownership among local community by way of contribution in cash, kind and/ or labour and voluntary labour (shramdaan)
  • To assist in ensuring sustainability of water supply system, i.e. water source, water supply infrastructure, and funds for regular O&M
  • To empower and develop human resource in the sector such that the demands of construction, plumbing, electrical, water quality management, water treatment, catchment protection, O&M, etc. are taken care of in short and long term
  • To bring awareness on various aspects and significance of safe drinking water and involvement of stakeholders in manner that make water everyone’s business

SJ-SMEC role in JJM Karnataka:

We are providing technical design assistance to the Rural Water Supply & Sanitation department Karnataka.

Key roles performed by SJ-SMEC are to provide design assistance for Water Supply design which involves design of Intake well, design of Jack well , design of Water Treatment Plants which are any units under it , design of suitable pipe diameters to carry to required quantity of water. There are many parameters like velocity , pressure , head loss , frictional loss , hydraulic gradient line etc.  which are mentioned in the Indian Standard Codes and CPHEEO (CENTRAL PUBLIC HEALTH & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGNEERING ORGANISATION NEW DELHI) under the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs

So, here we ( SJ-SMEC ) ensure that all the designs meet the parameters and later develop the civil drawings of ( Water Tanks , Water Treatment Plants ,Intake, & Jack well ) and send them for the construction

What are the skills needed for your role? How did you acquire them?

A good basic knowledge of Hydraulics, Pipes, Valves, Frictional losses, Water treatment design etc. are required. I acquired all these skills by referring to the YouTube videos by Rajashekhar sir and Jaspal sir. Along with this, one should also be proficient with AutoCAD, Water GEMS and QGIS software. It’s a decent pay job with decent working hours from 9 AM to 6 PM. I get to learn new things every day and I can apply in the real world to solve the problems

How does your work benefit society?

I am into the designs of Water supply. So I happen to provide drinking water to the communities

Your advice to students?

Your life is decided based on how good you are in terms of the knowledge you gain in 11th and 12th STD but not the marks no matter whatever stream you choose (Science, Arts and Commerce). Learn with full focus, don’t waste your time roaming with friends.

Develop a strong aptitude and logical reasoning which will help every professional.

Future plans?

My goal is to clear SSC JE in the year 2026 (March) and get a job at Military Engineering Service. Also to deepen my knowledge in my current field i.e. in the field of Environmental engineering.