Official Website of Department of Irrigation & Drainage Sabah

Lumat Drainage Scheme, Beaufort

Agriculture Engineering

Drainage of agricultural land is the natural or artificial removal of excess water from in or on the soil. Water can be considered to be excess when the amount present adversely affects the production of crops by creating unfavourable physical or chemical changes in the plant growth environment. Drainage problem in most areas of the humid tropics, like in Sabah, is usually because of high rainfall and accumulation of the excess water in low lying flat or depression areas.

In an irrigation system, both irrigation and drainage infrastructures are provided. The department not only provides drainage infrastructures in paddy growing areas, but also provides major drainage infrastructures for other non-paddy crops such as Oil Palm, Rubber, Cocoa, and fruit crops.

Malabau Drainage Scheme, Beaufort

As availability of suitable agriculture land become scarce, new land development in marginal soils for agriculture will be intensified in order to fulfil the objectives of State Agriculture Policy for Sabah. This will call for draining of waterlogged, low-lying areas and even wetlands. It is therefore, imperative that future drainage projects requires to take into consideration, the adverse effects on the river regime and the impact on the physical, chemical and biological processes of wetland, low-lying and waterlogged areas. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies will need to be carried out for drainage projects in identified wetland areas with acreage covering 100 or more hectares. This will avoid any costly mistakes in project implementation, due to environment damage that is likely to arise or because of subsequent costly modifications that may be required to make the project environmentally acceptable.

Krah Drainage Scheme, Kota Belud

The department has increased the agricultural drainage area from about 2,260 ha in 1970 to over 9,500 ha in 1999.

Infrastructures provided are drainage control structures, culverts, main and secondary drains, tidal gate, access roads and bridges.