Curtin Sarawak co-hosting Sustainable Development and Leadership Forum this 12 March

Miri – 7 March 2011 – Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) is partnering the United Nations Association of Singapore (UNAS) to host the Sustainable Development and Leadership Forum 2011 at its campus in Miri on 12 March 2011.

The one-day forum to be held in the university’s Harry Perkins Lecture Theatre is aimed at upper secondary students and students from institutions of higher learning.

It is part of UNAS’ Sustainable Borneo project in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Victoria to reach out to partners in Sarawak.

According to Yap Kwong Weng, Secretary-General , the project’s aim is to increase awareness of environmental sustainability, promote cooperation through education, and foster ties with local businesses, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and educational institutions in Sarawak.

The forum is also being held in conjunction with the United Nations International Year of Forests 2011, which aims to highlight and strengthen sustainable development in forest management.

Yap says it will be a platform for participants to connect with other youths and discuss a broad range of environmental sustainability-related topics, including environmental issues, technological advances and biodiversity.

Invitations to participate in the forum have been extended to students from Curtin Sarawak and most secondary schools in Miri. It is hoped that, through the forum, they will be able to better understand environmental sustainability and its related issues, and hence develop innovative ideas and plans to further enhance the standards of environmental sustainability.

The event’s guest of honour will be Assistant Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communication Datuk Lee Kim Shin, who is also the chairman of Curtin Sarawak’s management board. Yap and Professor Ian Kerr, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Curtin Sarawak, will also attend.

Among the forum speakers will be the Dean of Curtin Sarawak’s School of Foundation and Continuing Studies, Beena Giridharan, who will give a presentation on the Principles of Community Service. She is a strong advocate of youths engaging in community service and volunteerism and hopes the forum will encourage the students to take up community service for the benefit of the local community.

“A great deal of satisfaction and pride can be derived from helping others when individuals commit time and effort to an organisation or a cause they believe in. Performing community service and volunteering not only bring benefits to the community but to the volunteers as well,” says Beena.

She added that volunteering can bring a sense of increased self-esteem and feeling of being valued, in addition to developing social and cognitive skills in young people. Volunteering benefits the youth most as when they learn to help others, they feel empowered, and when they work with interesting tasks important to them, they tend to think deeply about the issues at hand and use complex thinking skills.

Civil and Construction Engineering Senior Lecturer Dr Tang Fu Ee, meanwhile, will give a talk on Water Sustainability in Sarawak, during which he will present the various existing methods used for wastewater treatment in the state.

“In large urban areas in Malaysia, the primary wastewater treatment method is with individual septic tanks or ISTs. The discharge of untreated or inadequately treated wastewater imposes high risks to public health and the environment as discharging the partially treated effluent from ISTs into the environment will overload the capacity of the receiving water body,” he says.

According to Dr Tang, the predominant domestic wastewater treatment system in Sarawak is primary treatment of municipal sewage (blackwater), other than a few centralised wastewater treatment facilities for small sites. To improve wastewater management in Sarawak, effective alternative wastewater treatment systems need to be explored.

The other distinguished speakers will comprise Associate Professor Jude Chua and Dr William Choy who will touch on the topic How to Think about Climate Change: It’s Not all Science, and Dr Mohd Razi who will speak on Social Leadership and Volunteerism.

In addition to listening to the talks, participants will get to join workshop sessions entitled Getting Your Ideas Across Effectively, Connecting Biodiversity and You and NGOs in Asia conducted by David Hoe, UNAS’ project director for social and leadership development, who will be assisted by James Chai, president of Curtin Sarawak’s Student Council.

Students interested to participate can register with Lydia Mujah of Curtin Sarawak’s School of Foundation and Continuing Studies at 085-443939 ext. 4215 or by e-mailing lydia.m@curtin.edu.my.