Bock committed to protecting marine environment

Octavia Tsibes
Michelline Nawatises

Aletia Bock is a senior environmental scientist at Debmarine Namibia, who spends most of her time monitoring the impacts of marine diamond mining operations and developing appropriate management programmes.

She helps the company to advance its quest to the preserve and protect the environment and sustain its responsible use of natural resources.

Bock was one of the fortunate recipients of a coveted Debmarine Namibia bursary to further her studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.

“One of the highlights of being a Debmarine bursar was the fact that I had the opportunity to work for the company during holidays, allowing me to apply the theoretical knowledge acquired throughout the year within the business, under professional supervision,” she says.

Bock completed her BSc honours degree in environmental science and joined the company as graduate environmental scientist in 2009.

She has been with the company for nine years and currently hold the position of senior environmental scientist.

The key duties of an environmental scientist are related to the identification of environmental impacts of mining operations and developing appropriate management programmes for these.

Bock’s duties include assessing environmental risks and impacts, in order to develop an effective risk management plan.

She also identifies and develops scientific research and monitoring programmes, based on environmental risks assessed, in collaboration with relevant independent scientists, in order to maintain impartiality of results.

Bock also implements an internationally recognised management system to drive the company’s environmental activities, while liaising with internal and external stakeholders with regard to environmental issues and the sharing of information.

“The most intriguing aspect of the science is questioning why things are the way they are and then the exciting task of designing methods of collecting information (data) to answer these questions,” Bock says.

Environmental science allows her to study the natural environment and understand the interaction of humans with it. As the world population is increasing, more pressure is put on natural resources to fulfil human needs.

The environmental problems caused by this pressure typically requires involvement from the scientific, social, political and economic spheres to develop effective solutions.

As an environmental scientist, she is part of a multidisciplinary team that researches environmental solutions, which is an exciting and fulfilling career choice.

The challenge she encounters in her career is that environmental problems are diverse and often require collaborated effort.

“Thinking of viable solutions, limited by various resources such as lack of technology and information, among others, can be quite frustrating at times.”

Bock’s advice to the youth that they think about the problems Namibia faces today. “Think of how you can contribute to solving these problems and then fiercely and passionately pursue educating yourself in whatever field you have chosen to make a difference.”