COLLABORATIVE STUDIES NEEDED TO SOLVE DEVELOPMENT ON PEAT SOIL IN SARAWAK
SIBU, July 11 (Bernama) -- Collaborative studies are required to address peat soil problems that hinder the development of certain projects in Sarawak, the State Deputy Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development, Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee said.
He said the peat soil problem is among the issues that the state government was seriously focusing on as emphasis is also given to research to overcome the problem that could be holding back Sarawak from moving forward with its development programmes.
“Proper research is needed to avoid too much money being spent on maintenance of development projects implemented on soft ground areas. A form of collaboration is needed among the researchers, not only from the engineering point of view but geology and other fields as well,” he said when officiating the International Symposium on Soft Ground Improvement (SOGI) here today.
Annuar said Sarawak Research and Development Council (SRDC), which is under his ministry's purview, could provide funds for research that could identify methods to address the issue, particularly in road construction.
“While there is not much of a problem in the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway which stretches towards the hinterland where the land is hilly, construction of the coastal highway faces a lot of difficulties as it passes through many swampy areas with lots of rivers to cross,” he added.
A total of 95 participants involving academia and industry professionals took part in the two-day symposium starting today and organised by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Centre of Tropical Geoengineering (GEOTROPIK).
The symposium brought together nine keynote speakers and three invited speakers who are renowned international professionals from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to share knowledge, best practices and cutting-edge solutions to enhance infrastructure stability and resilience in soft ground conditions.
-- BERNAMA
