UMS, experts discuss how to overcome flood

KOTA KINABALU: The Natural Disasters Research Centre (NDRC), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), participated in a roundtable discussion how to overcome flood, organised by the Akademi Profesor Malaysia (APM), recently.

The discussion was held via the online Zoom platform, in which two of the NDRC research fellows, Dr Janice Lynn Ayog and Assoc Prof Ts Gs Dr Rodeano Hj Roslee PGeol, were in attendance.

The roundtable discussion was moderated by Prof Dr Zulkifli Yusop, who is an APM fellow, which involved 11 panellists from professional learned society, government agencies, consulting engineers, academic researchers as well as non-governmental organisations.

Despite the broad range of expertise, the panellists had successfully touched on many existing and arising issues pertaining to flood disasters, particularly in uncovering the perspectives and proposed solutions relating to floods.

The first panellist, Ir Loo Chee Kin, had discussed some engineering approaches used in flood mitigation, whereas the final panellist, Ili Nadiah Dzulfakar, exposed gender inequalities in the distribution of flood aids.

The Director General of the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia which is the main government department overseeing flood management in Malaysia, Dato’ Ir Dr Md Nasir Md Noh, was also invited to give keynote speech.

Also present during the event were the chairman of the Science, Technology and Innovation cluster APM, Prof Dato’ Ir Dr Mahyuddin Ramli, and the Vice President of APM, Emeritus Prof Dato’ Dr Ibrahim Komoo.

For the record, research related to natural disasters, from the landslide, floods, earthquakes, and coastal erosion, was carried out by UMS way back since 1995 and actively involved Geology Programme, Environmental Science Programme (Faculty of Science & Natural Resources), along with the Faculty of Engineering from the Civil Engineering Program.

Then in 2006, it was merged into one research unit called the Research Unit of Natural Disasters.

In April 2016, NDRC was upgraded as one of the university’s Centre of Excellency of UMS, mandated as the focal point for all researchers in UMS who carry out our research related to natural disasters.

The research centre is the only one in Malaysia that represents as State Government action plans for preparedness and response to natural disasters in Malaysia, working together with NADMA as the representative for the Federal administration.