USM, PENANG, 12 April 2016 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) continues to widen its international network in the field of water management through cooperation with strategic partners in further championing sustainability.

The USM River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC) recently collaborated with the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) to organise the 37^th IAHR World Congress 2017.

The USM Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato' Dr. Omar Osman hoped that in ensuring the success of the congress next year, the established collaboration would offer more opportunities for both partners to share and exchange experiences in the field concerned.

"This would allow the sharing of ideas and opinions, which would be strengthened with planned collaborative researches to spur new innovations which would be beneficial to the world at large, especially those which are closely-related to the sustainable aspect of nature, which coincides with the aspiration of USM, namely to drive excellence and to ensure a sustainable tomorrow," said Omar further.

The Director of REDAC, Professor Dr. Nor Azazi Zakaria said that, the Congress which is expected to be held in August 2017 would gather water management experts from around the world, and to gain benefits from inputs relating to water management issues in Malaysia, with the hope of improving the water management system.

“REDAC is one of the 14 Higher Institutions Centre of Excellence or HICoE in Malaysia and the first to be under the category of Core in Services, while the others would be under the category of Core in Education. With a budget allocated by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (KPT), we would be able to mobilise REDAC at the international level,” he explained.

Azazi elaborated that this would be the first step in its second year being a HiCoE. REDAC has engaged a truly far-reaching partner in IAHR, spearheaded by more than 60 countries around the world in the field of hydraulics water management.

“With more than 4,000 members of IAHR, REDAC would set to become the focus in Asia-Pacific and this would fulfill all the indicators (KPI) determined by KPT, in order to secure all the international research grants, as well as in establishing collaborative networks through the upcoming Congress,” he said when met after the meeting between the USM Vice-Chancellor and the Executive Director of IAHR, Dr. Christopher B. George here.

Also at the ceremony, USM and IAHR signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to facilitate the organisation of the congress, to be held at the Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur.

Added Azazi further, this congress is also regarded as a programme that could assist the Tourism Ministry in promoting Malaysia, more specifically Kuala Lumpur as the perennial Malaysian city, with the anticipated attendance of paper presenters from various parts of the world.

Meanwhile, Dr Christopher B. George was happy with the organisation of the congress together with USM, being a well-known university and with the involvement of Professor Azazi and his team, he is confident that the upcoming congress would be one of the best organised.

“In relation to the congress, IAHR would be confident of the attendance of experts in the field of hydro-environment engineering from different parts of the world, to come and share their thoughts and updates in this sector.”

“Other than being receptive to problems found in the Malaysian context, we would be able to discuss together on how those problems could be dealt with using the best means possible,” he added.

On the same day, in providing support for the IAHR Congress 2017, USAINS Holding also signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with IAHR to work together to ensure the success of the coming congress. USAINS Holding Sdn Bhd was represented by its Managing Director, Edwin Jose Gomes while Dr. Christopher B. George represented IAHR.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin

Text: Syuhada Abd. Aziz