Mr. Lau Hieng Ung, Director, Sewerage Services Department Sarawak

MWA Activities2nd IWA Development Congress & Exhibition, 21 – 24 November 2011The 2nd IWA Development Congress &Exhibition was coorganised by IWA andMWA at the Kuala Lumpur ConventionCentre. With the overarching theme“Pioneering Water Solutions in UrbanisingAreas”, the congress examined issuesranging from appropriate technologysolutions to broader enabling mechanismssuch as governance, finance systems,capacity development and stakeholdermobilisation. It built consensus on howpotential solutions can be tried, tested andscaled up by:Fostering in depth debates oninnovative solutions at the frontier of waterand sanitation management and urbandevelopment.Enabling new partnerships acrossgeographical boundaries and areas ofexpertise.Providing access to the latest bestpractice experiences and scientificfindings.Catalysing new insights and foresightthrough the exchange of ideas and sharinglessons learned.Awarding organisations andoutstanding projects for their emblematicwork and results.Through these efforts, IWA aimsto create a positive impact on povertyreduction, economic growth, human healthand environmental sustainability in urbanareas throughout the world.IWA created the Development Congressto highlight the most significant andimpactful advances in the delivery of safe,clean drinking water and sanitation services.In particular, the focus of this congress isto share experiences on ‘what works’ and‘works at scale’ in low and middle incomecountries. There were approximately 600delegates including the exhibitors whoparticipated in this congress.In conjunction with this, the precongressprogrammes i.e. the Young WaterProfessionals (YWP) workshop, WaterlinksDevelopment Partner meetings, technicaltours, local tour and golf were organised.The IWA Awards Reception was held togive recognition to the innovative waterengineering project for its originality,innovation and engineering excellencethat is applied in a low and middle incomecountry.There were three country pavilions,namely Malaysia, the Netherlands andSingapore as well as other exhibitors whichranged from equipment manufacturers,water operators, NGOs and technologyproviders.The congress ended with Malaysiancultural performances during the GalaDinner.SARAWAK CommitteeThe Sarawak Committee is headed byIr. Wong Tiong Kai. The committee hasrecently organised the MWA road showheld from 11 to 13 October 2011 in severalparts of Sarawak namely Miri, Sibu andKuching. The road show has included apresentation by the Director of SewerageService Department, Sarawak. There wasa growth of membership from this statesince the formed of Sarawak committeein the last two years.SABAH CommitteeThe Sabah Committee was formed toencourage more memberships from Sabahas well as for MWA to engage with membersthere for future events. The committee isheaded by Ms. Amy Yew. On 28 July 2011, Ms.Amy had met up with the Director of JabatanAir Sabah and Deputy Director of CawanganPembetungan JKR Sabah (representative)for this intention. Besides membership,there was immense discussion on trainingand JANS suggested that more activities onwater related to be carried out in Sabah. TheDirector has agreed to join as a member ofMWA and will encourage his team to join asmember as well.18 WaterMalaysia