Synopsis

Soil erosion and the consequent sedimentation of waterways is the biggest single cause of waterway pollution all over the world. Erosion and sedimentation have both environmental and economic impacts. Among others, they destroy aquatic life, reduce reservoir capacity, cause flash floods and drastically reduce the value of rivers for recreation, an important factor in the quality of life in developed countries.
In the past few decades the country has experienced rapid land development for urbanization with increased logging and sand mining, as well as the opening up of huge tracts of forest land for resettlement and plantation agriculture; all of which has resulted in rivers and coastal areas receiving massive sediment loads.

In urban areas the biggest contributor of sediment to rivers is earthworks for land development. It was only in 2005 that Erosion and Sediment Control Plans (ESCP) were made mandatory for earthwork applications on new developments. They are still not effective in tackling the problem mainly due to a lack of competency at all levels from contractor to regulator in this new field of ESC.

An NGO, the Malaysian Stormwater Organization (MSO) was registered in 2011 with the objective of certifying professionals in the field of ESC; a proven way of overcoming the problem of incompetency among those preparing ESCPs.  
This course is part of the overall objective of spreading awareness on the problem and an overview on how it can be tackled.


About The Course Leader

Dato’ Ahmad Fuad Embi retired from the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), Malaysia in 2007. His last position was as Deputy Director-General I.  He qualified with a BE (Canterbury, NZ) in 1976, a DHE (Delft) in 1981, and an MSc (Southampton) in 1986. While at the DID, he was a pioneer in sustainable river management and in managing storm water through source detention strategies. He led efforts to produce the Malaysian “Manual on Urban Storm water Management” in year 2000 and in extensive training of engineers in the new methodologies.

He is a founder member of the Malaysian Storm water Organization (MSO), an NGO set up in 2008 to train and certify erosion and sediment control professionals under an agreement with EnviroCert International, USA. The move has led to growing ESC competency in government agencies. Dato Fuad is also a strong proponent of rainwater harvesting as a means of water conservation, starting a pilot project at his former DID HQ in Kuala Lumpur in 2002.

As an Adjunct Professor at UKM he is involved in pilot research for affordable solutions to control pollution from Batek cottage industry, Wet markets and Keropok factories in the East coast; besides the development of a “Hydromulch” for erosion and sediment control.
Dato Fuad is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) with the Board of Engineers, Malaysia as well as a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC)  with EnviroCert International, USA.