13th International Conference on Urban Drainage

State of Sarawaks Track Record in Urban Drainage
Due to its history of flooding, attributed to an extensive river tributary network, Sarawak has an ongoing track record in flood mitigation schemes. In the recent $128 million Economic Stimulus Package, RM50 million was allocated for four projects in Kuching.

These projects are flood mitigation works for Sungai Maong Paroh at Jalan Matang (RM15 million); flood mitigation Sungai Padungan (Phase 2 – worth at RM18 million); installation of telemetry stations for Sungai Sarawak (RM2 million) and land acquisition for Kuching city flood bypass channel (RM15 million). A further RM78 million was allocated for 10 flood mitigation projects in Sibu including land acquisition.

Examples of successfully implemented projects include the Miri City Central Business District Flood Mitigation project, which was completed in Feb 2009 and the Bau Town Flood Mitigation project, designed to protect Bau Town and Bau Police station from major floods. About 39 per cent of the works on the Bau project has been completed including raising the existing roads, constructions of earth bunds, river walls, flood detention ponds, culverts and flood relief channels. The project is scheduled for completion by December 2009.

Malaysia is centrally located in this region .We are a growing economy well on the road to becoming a developed nation by the year 2020. ­The rapid development has given rise to drainage problems resulting in flash floods brought on by the unpredictable extreme and intense precipitation. Th­is results in ever increasing annual losses in spite of engaging new and emerging technology relying on ICT and best management practices. Urban areas keep expanding, bringing more pressure to the capacity of drainage system built to cope with the increased runoff and deteriorating water quality status.

The above phenomenon is similarly experienced by other developing countries albeit with varying degree of severity, depending upon the ability of the national governments to direct their resources towards solving this menace. ­The Malaysian government is very open and ever willing to try new technologies in its efforts to address the drainage problem prevailing in the country.

Malaysia has been investing in programmes towards mitigating urban flash floods with a reasonable degree of success. A recent and notable example is the construction of a runoff diversion tunnel which, also serves as carriageway under the city of Kuala Lumpur. Th­e other complementary flood mitigation components include the construction of detention ponds for diverting excess runoffs through the city of Kuala Lumpur. ­There are of course other good examples coming from the regions as well as developed countries that can be shared by all participants.

Added knowledge and knowledge transfer
Malaysia is at the fore front of implementing research and development programmes and activities on urban drainage with full support given by various organisations and institutions of higher learning. In spite of that, the current knowledge in solving urban drainage issues is still at the beginning stage. Malaysia has also taken bold steps to introduce the latest knowledge on sustainable urban drainage using non-structural
measures against traditional structural measures. Hence, the opportunity to organise this conference will give added advantage to Malaysia and countries in the region to improve their knowledge. Th­is will take effect through direct technology transfer to conference delegates participating in the 13th ICUD.

Direct application of Technology
The conference is aimed at looking at the most recent ideas, technologies, behaviours, economics and policies related to centralised and decentralised systems for managing urban drainage as part of an integrated approach to the water cycle. However, the current practice may not be directly applicable in the tropical regions as it has been continuously improved in developed countries.