Kuching to host confab on urban drainage

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KUCHING: Urban drainage experts throughout the world will converge in Sarawak to attend the 13th International Conference on Urban Drainage (ICUD) in 2014.

JUBILANT: Dr Mohamed (centre) shakes hands with Christina over their success on the ICUD bid while the others give the thumbs up.

It will be the first time Malaysia holds such a conference with the city chosen as the venue.

Universiti Teknologi Nasional (Uniten) Professor Dr Mohamed Nor told reporters this during the press conference yesterday.

In jubilant mood, Dr Mohamed said ICUD was a major triennial activity  of the Joint Committee on Urban Drainage (JCUD) under the auspices of the International Water Association (IWA).

He said the nature of the conference was scientific but they would address storm water management, urban technology and water resources.

Dr Mohamed said they were able to bring the conference to Sarawak after Malaysia won the bid by one vote from the US.

“Kuching is the venue as Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB)  was very keen  to give  its support  and as it has the facilities, resources  and access to handle such scientific international conference,” enthused Dr Mohamed.

He believed that organising this activity  here  would help Sarawak and the local community appreciate  the use of the state-of-the art technology in solving water related problems in urban areas in terms of quantity and quality.

Dr Mohamed expected many scientific papers and case studies to be presented by various countries  worldwide  that could help Malaysia get an insight on the latest state in R&D.

He explained that some technologies could be directly used with little adaptation  and at least 500 technical papers presented and selected papers published in scientific journals.

The conference will be a platform for local researchers and professionals to share their experiences with their peers from overseas.

Dr Mohamed is optimistic of the success of the conference and that Sarawak will be better exposed to the latest findings that can be used and adapted locally to help solve water problems.

He expected 1,000 participants at this ICUD conference to be held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching.

Also present at the press conference were engineers from the Department of Drainage and Irrigation  Malaysia, Abdul Hamid Md Kassim  and Azmi Jafri.

Others present were Wong Wen Ho from the Department of Drainage and Irrigation Sarawak. SCB was represented by its sales director Christina Wendt and marketing and communication manager Amelia Roziman.