HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi Minh Cityneeds long-term flood-prevention plans that would focus on the most denselypopulated areas first and limit development in lowland areas, experts said at arecent meeting held in the city.

Huynh Le Khoa, from the city’s Department of NaturalResources and Environment, said that high tides on the Sai Gon River hadincreased significantly during the past 10 years, with the highest levelrecorded at 1.72 metres. Heavy rainfall of over 100mm has been occurring morefrequently in the city.

“It’s really difficult to resolve the floodingproblem. The city should instead focus on densely populated areas and then theless vulnerable areas,” he added.

Vu Hai, former Vice President of the HCM CityAssociation of Water and Environment, said that flooding had worsened in thecity in recent years.

“Floods this year have been more serious than lastyear,” he said, adding that there are now 40 flood-prone sites in the city.  

Current flood-prevention programmes areineffective because they are too costly and take too much to implement, expertssaid.

A study conducted by the National University ofHCM City in District 7 showed that the average annual loss from flooding was 13million VND (565 USD) per household, 13.4 million VND (582 USD) per householdbusiness, and 24 million VND (1,050 USD) per enterprise.

The cost includes repair of floors, walls andelectrical equipment; dredging of drainage systems inside and outside thehouse; and time spent to move and repair belongings and furniture.

Companies incur additional costs because they loseabout four days of work each year, according to the study.

Other losses include forced leave from work andlost time in traffic jams, all of which can reach up to the equivalent of atotal of 90 billion VND (3.94 million USD) per year. 

Le Anh Tuan, a representative from the HCM City’s SteeringCentre for Urban Flood Control, said the city was speeding up the upgrade ofTham Luong-Ben Cat Canal and Nuoc Len Canal to address drainage problems.

Eight tide-control drains, 68 drainage dikes, andseven to eight dyke embankments along the Sai Gon riverbank are being built aswell.
All of the projects, which are expected tosignificantly reduce flooding, are slated to be completed by 2020.

Flooding at 13 out of 17 floor-prone roads wouldbe resolved, while more than 179,100 alleys and nine roads often hit by hightides would also see reduced flooding.

Hai said that, among many solutions, ecologicalreservoirs could regulate the amount of water in case of heavy rains.

Besides construction of dyke and water reservoirs,the city also needs to continue research on flood-prone areas, he added.  

The city has spent more than 22 trillion VND (962.68million USD) to solve flooding in the last 10 years. The figure is expected toreach more than 120 trillion VND by 2020.
 
However, the results of flood control have notbeen commensurate with the effort and costs, experts said.

The city plans to build at least seven newwastewater treatment plants from now until 2020 to deal with its rapidly risingpopulation.
HCM City will need up to 97.3 trillion VND (4.25billion USD) for flood-prevention projects in the next three years, experts said.-VNS/VNA