Ir. Tan Hoo,

Director General, Department of Sewage Service, Malaysia

Ir. Tan Hoo participated in JICA’s three-month training course, on
Sewage Works Engineering in 1982. For twenty-eight years, he has been
actively engaged in JICA’s cooperation activities in Malaysia in the
fields of sewage and solid waste management. He is currently working
with a JICA expert for the development of technical guidelines for the
Malaysian sewage system.

I still treasure the experience of having traveled across Japan, and
being exposed to different sewage systems in each region. Actually, I
later built a sewage system in my country, modeled after the one we
observed in Hokkaido.

On top of taking full advantage of the curriculum, I was also very
active on weekends. I always went out with a map, camera and a notebook
in hand, got on a train and visited countless places in Tokyo. By
looking at the daily scenes of the Japanese life, I soon learned that
the younger generation, even the small children, was well disciplined.
I felt like I had discovered the secret behind Japan’s rapid economical
success after the Second World War.

There were participants from all over the world and we enjoyed
dynamic discussions everyday, exchanging opinions of existing
situations and arising difficulties. It was through such lively
exchanges, I realized that though ‘needs’ were common, the ‘challenges’
were different based on each country’s social structures and its
people’s lifestyles, and that different approaches were indispensable.
I believe if there is anything that former participants could do for
JICA, it is to feed back information about our actual activities back
in the homelands. The feedback could be useful in continuous
modification of the training programs, for the benefit of the future
participants.

*Ir is the title granted to Malaysian professional engineers under the provision given in the “Registration of Engineers Act.”

Source: JICA Network March 2005, Vol.26