From engineer to industry leader

Faizal Othman on Malaysia’s water challenges and the power of Trenchless Technology

In the lead-up to Trenchless Asia 2025, Faizal Othman shares insights with Trenchless Works on infrastructure innovation, nonrevenue water projects, and the evolving role of trenchless methods in Malaysia’s sustainable development.

Faizal, tell us a bit about your early career and how you became involved in water and wastewater management.

I graduated with a Civil Engineering degree and began my career in the early 1990s with SMHB, a leading water sector engineering consultancy in Malaysia. That role allowed me to work on major water infrastructure projects early on. But a particularly formative experience was a collaboration with the UK firm Binnie and Partners, where I was responsible for deploying hydraulic loggers in water networks as part of a largescale digitalisation and system analysis initiative. It was then that I truly grasped how critical the water network is to the overall supply system.

What would you say are the highlights of your career?

One of the biggest highlights has to be the opportunity to lead the national wastewater company in Malaysia, Indah Water Konsortium (IWK). While the focus was on strengthening the financial position, which is an interesting mix of disciplined accounting reporting while encouraging bottom-up innovative trials and creating a compelling brand with its stakeholders. The company stabilised its cashflow position, widen its revenue streams through innovation for resources recovery, led communities through river of life campaigns, and strengthening the corporate narrative of New Life for Water.

I’m also proud to help grow companies, establishing itself not just through key projects but a business model focused on non-revenue water projects. It is truly rewarding to see the effort continue today, still creating high value skills and long-term opportunities for the graduates and young aspiring engineers within the industry.

What are the biggest opportunities for the Malaysian water and wastewater market?

Investing in human capital is key; we need to equip our workforce with the right skills and expertise, and a clear pathway on how these skills will create value for their careers. Advancing the application of technologies can unlock real economic value for the sector and the nation.

What are the biggest challenges?

For me it’s raising awareness. It’s essential for people to understand how vital the water sector is to the country’s development and prosperity. The challenge is also in how we understand the challenge. Are we here to just solve problems or are we here to create solutions?

Raising awareness should be about shifting perception. If we want people to care, we have to help them feel the impact of the water sector in their daily lives. When we move from solving problems to creating solutions; we should not just build infrastructure, we build trust, opportunity, and hope.

How did you become involved with the Malaysia Association for Trenchless Technologies (MATT)?

During my time at IWK, I saw the need for a platform that could accelerate the adoption of trenchless technologies into the management of sewerage services, in expanding the sewer network system, in ensuring the existing vast sewer network continue its service, and in supporting the modernisation of the water system as a whole. That’s when the idea for MATT was born, to promote these solutions and highlight their broader economic and environmental value.

What role does MATT play in helping its members leverage these opportunities and increase the use of sustainable trenchless technologies?

In rapidly developing economies, infrastructure must meet growing demand without compromising its surroundings, both the environment and quality of life. Trenchless solutions help strike that balance, and MATT supports this by advocating for sustainable practices, facilitating knowledge exchange, and creating visibility for cuttingedge technologies.

What do you see as the future for MATT? How will it grow and evolve?

MATT can play a vital role in ensuring technological advancement and practices in the trenchless community, which in turn will create value for society and the economy. It will also shine a light to the new generation of water and infrastructure practitioners (engineers, planners, policymakers, and researchers) as critical drivers for economic growth.

In your opinion, what are the priorities for the Malaysian water and wastewater market?

Malaysia’s water and wastewater sector stands at a critical juncture. As the country experiences rapid urbanisation, industrial expansion, and climate variability, the infrastructure that supports clean water supply and sanitation must evolve beyond traditional models.

The three guiding principles, delivering value-for-money infrastructure, reducing environmental impact, and improving quality of life, form the core of a resilient, people-centric strategy. These are include the growing adoption of trenchless technologies in congested urban settings, the expansion of water reuse systems for industrial applications, and the deployment of AI and digital twins for proactive asset management.

Special attention should be given to reducing non-revenue water (NRW), enhancing sewer rehabilitation programs, and embedding sustainability in procurement and planning frameworks. We should build collaborative model that brings together public agencies, private operators, technologists, and communities to ensure water infrastructure becomes an enabler of national prosperity, not just a response to infrastructure gaps. >

Ultimately, the question is not just how we solve today’s challenges, but how we design and deliver solutions that elevate quality of life for future generations.

What are some of the region’s major water and wastewater infrastructure projects?

These include large-scale centralised wastewater systems to ensure adequate treatment of wastewater, not just to protect the environment but also to capture and recover the valuable resource for reuse before returning to the environment. Water reuse for industries requiring high grade water require extensive new networks to be planned in already congested areas. Data centres which are the heart of a data driven decision support systems such as blockchain and AI, require enormous resources to operate. Developing economies with lower cost of startup capital can immediately benefit from the boom, however the right planning and careful resource allocation is needed.

Non-revenue water reduction and sewer rehabilitation projects are needed to sustain and improve water supply and sewerage networks. Network asset systems need continuous systematic, structured, data driven maintenance as part of continuous asset management. While such operational problems as are now getting policy and budgetary support from respective agencies, trenchless technologies must prove its value by achieving the long-term economic benefits to continue enjoy and sustain these critical public sector support.

While trenchless technologies may seem like a small part of the broader infrastructure landscape, they are a critical enabler of progress, especially in densely populated, economically ambitious regions. The challenge is not just in proving their technical merit, but in demonstrating longterm value, environmentally, economically, and socially, to sustain support and funding from public agencies.

How do you expect to see trenchless technologies deployed in their delivery?

Further integration with digitisation and predictive modelling though data capture, access to historical data with validation and integrity, enabling AI driven decisionmaking solutions through digital twins of network management. With AI-driven digital twins becoming more mature, trenchless technologies can be deployed as part of proactive asset management. Instead of waiting for failures, utilities can simulate network stress, predict degradation, and deploy trenchless solutions before failures occur, minimising disruption and maximizing resource use.

Integration with urban planning redefined by data integration. Trenchless methods can be embedded in city models, where planners, engineers, and AI systems collaborate in real time. These technologies won’t just be construction techniques, they’ll be strategic tools, visible in the planning phase, optimized for cost, traffic impact, and carbon footprint.

Network asset systems need continuous systematic, structured, data driven maintenance in non-revenue water reduction and sewer rehabilitation projects to sustain and improve water supply and sewerage networks. While there projects are now getting policy and budgetary support from respective agencies, trenchless technologies must prove its value by achieving the long-term economic benefits to continue enjoy and sustain these critical public sector support.

What needs to be done to increase the use of trenchless technologies in installing and maintaining water and wastewater infrastructure?

We need to focus on creating and delivering economic value for society while providing sustainable solutions for the environment. We must then ensure people are aware of these benefits.

The solutions must not only benefit us as practitioners but most important is the public’s perception; the recipients of the services, technology, products must also see, feel and enjoy the benefits. How does the deployment of trenchless technologies in infrastructure projects have significantly improve their quality of life? We have the answers, but have we truly appreciated the question? We already have the tools, technologies, and knowledge to transform how we build and maintain our cities. The next frontier is not more innovation in machines, but more innovation in connection, to the people we serve.

What advice would you give to young people considering entering the water and wastewater industry?

I’d say that while you may not always start your career doing what you love, but in the water industry, you’ll find the chance to love what you do because it matters.

This field is about more than pipes and pumps, it’s about protecting public health, enabling sustainable cities, and making a real difference in people’s everyday lives. You’ll work on challenges that are as old as civilisation, but with tools that are on the cutting edge, from trenchless technologies and smart infrastructure to AI and digital twins.

Trenchless technologies have a huge role to play in the expansion and modernisation of our water and sewer network infrastructures, as well as ensuring we can adequately inspect and maintain existing systems. Our modern lifestyle in the AI world, designed to free up the human passion for creativity and analytical thoughts, will continue to grow and demand for resources. It is our responsibility as industry practitioners, in this case trenchless technologists, to rise up to the challenges. Perhaps we should rise from being underground heroes to now be visible in the world’s modern landscape. We can and should continue to provide solutions that have an impact, enter into conversations that matters, and for that matter, be passionate about being part of the solution. I have seen new ideas and growth in implementation for network management, from analysing of static records in old schematic plans, to being aided by AI driven digital twins; both have valid skills for network management, but obviously one has a greater advantage of being out of the trenches.

The shift from being “underground heroes” to “visible players” in the sustainable infrastructure movement means trenchless professionals will need to be communicators, advocators, and systems thinkers, engaged in cross- sector conversations on climate resilience, urban equity, and smart growth.

The beauty of this industry is that it’s evolving. Whether you’re a problem-solver, a builder, a data enthusiast, a communicator, or an innovator, there’s space for you here.

Your career path doesn’t have to be linear, it’s about growth, discovery, and finding purpose, and some say, your legacy.

Why are events such as Trenchless Asia important in promoting the use of sustainable methods in delivering and maintaining infrastructure?

Trenchless Asia provides an unparalleled platform for people to learn about the capabilities and benefits of these technologies, showcase the latest equipment, and explore new ways to implement ideas.

Trenchless Asia takes place at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia, on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th May. For more information, visit www.trenchlessasia.com.

GRUNDOBURST systems are used to replace defective pipes up to ND 1,200 quickly and gently underground, without reducing hydraulic capacity.

The result is a new, loadbearing pipeline in the existing route. In addition, complete renewal allows even more hydraulic capacity to be created by pulling in larger diameters.

Pipe rehabilitation could not be more sustainable.

Find out more online or get in touch:

T: +49 2723 808-0

M: info@tracto.com