PUTRAJAYA, 17 March 2016 – The success of the project entitled ‘Research and Development for Reducing Geo-Hazard Damage in Malaysia Caused by Landslide and Flood’ has become among the first to be completed under the smart partnership initiative of 'Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development' (SATREPS) in Malaysia, involving the cooperation of various partners from Japan.

According to USM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Professor Dato' Dr. Muhamad Jantan, via this project, the research team has succeeded in establishing effective means in readying an early warning system for landslides and floods, as well as in having a risk management system for the national disaster management agency to plan in facing landslide and flood disasters.

"The collaboration between researchers from both countries entails an effort towards preventive management, which is also a national aspiration for higher education, in focusing on areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to contribute to efforts in dealing with natural disasters," he said at the hand-over ceremony of the research project output to the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia recently, which was attended by close to 500 people.

He added that, the research collaboration between Malaysia and Japan is one to be proud of as it highlighted the success of sharing skills and expertise, to be used as measures in reducing the number of casualties and mishaps due to landslides and floods.

The Deputy Higher Education Minister, Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching then said that, this project has raised the effectiveness of knowledge transfer practices between the two countries, in addition to the development of human capital in relation to natural disaster management.

“The effort headed by USM was truly commendable in ensuring the success of operations in managing national disasters, which could be of use by the relevant agencies in facing such disasters," she said in reading the speech text of the Minister of Higher Education Malaysia, Dato' Seri Idris Jusoh.

Meanwhile, representative of the Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia, Kohei Nakamura later stated that Japan would continue to assist Malaysia and is prepared in sharing the knowledge in a project such as this.

"This has been the greatest success so far achieved by both countries, and Japan hopes that this would be the beginning of more future collaborations which would become global in scale," he said in reading out the speech text of the Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia.

This project has the involvement of the universities and agencies in Malaysia and Japan, those of which include USM, UNITEN, Multimedia University together with other departments such as Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) Malaysia, Public Works Department (PWD) Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Slopewatch as well as Japanese partners from the University of Tokyo, Chiba University, Ibaraki University, The International Centre for Water Hazard & Risk Management (ICHARM), Kansai University, Kyushu University, National Research Institute for Earth Science & Disaster Prevention (NIED), Niigata University, Nippon Koei and Vision Tech Incorporated (VTI).

This project was also supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Science & Technology Agency (JST).

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin

Text & Photos: Hafiz Meah Ghouse Meah