USM lakes seen as solution to flood, water supply woes
GEORGE TOWN: Tasik Aman and Tasik Harapan at the Universiti Sains Malaysia ( USM) have the potential to help solve problems of floods, dirty water resources and inadequate water supply faced by the population in the vicinity.
USM River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre ( REDAC) director, Prof Dr Nor Azazi Zakaria said the two lakes, that connected to Sungai Gambir, could help address various problems in the surrounding area if the lakes’ conditions were improved.
He said the existence of Tasik Aman and Tasik Harapan could also help to mitigate the floods either within the campus vicinity or in the surrounding areas, including Sungai Dua and Batu Uban.
“If we can upgrade these two lakes, it is a great opportunity for REDAC to present a new concept to solve the problems as we are now in the final process of identifying the appropriate filter (for treating underground water of both lakes) which we will combine with the existing reservoir pond system that we have. It aims at using the filtered water for the entire campus and if the effort is implemented successfully we will be able save water bill of up to RM600,000 a year that can be used for more important campus development,” he told Bernama.
Nor Azazi, who is also USM Geotechnical Engineering lecturer, hoped the centre would be able to raise RM6 million fund for upgrading of the two lakes for the short and long term purposes.
He said in an effort to attract various parties to contribute funds to ensure the implementation of the upgrading works on the lakes succeed, REDAC has organised various irrigation and drainage engineering awareness workshops both domestically and internationally besides establishing good relations with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation ( Unesco).
“If we can raise the RM6 million fund, we can then create an attractive system that help solves the flood-related issues and I hope the authorities whether the state government, federal government or non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can be our partners in this project,” he added. — Bernama