HCMC to employ pumps at severe flooding points

Pham Cong Do, deputy director of the Drainage Infrastructure Management Department, Technical Infrastructure Management Center under the department, said the center would organize teams on standby to mobilize pumps and equipment to promptly address severe flooding points arising in the downtown area.

The unit will monitor tide levels and assign forces to be on duty around the clock at pump stations (both fixed and mobile) and tide control culverts to handle situations timely, Do told a city meeting on Thursday.

He added that the center would focus on dredging the drainage system on roads that frequently experience flooding due to heavy rains and high tides.

Manholes that are sunken, missing covers, misaligned, or damaged will be inspected, repaired, or replaced to ensure traffic safety.

The center will also check and review the city's street trees and parks to cut down, replant, or replace trees that are diseased, old, or likely to fall, he said.

At the beginning of this month, the Department of Construction announced that the city had 18 flooding points on main roads due to heavy rains and high tides.

Among them, roads like Phan Anh, Le Duc Tho, Quang Trung, Nguyen Van Khoi (Cay Tram), Ho Hoc Lam, National Highway 1, Dang Thi Ranh, Duong Van Cam, Kha Van Can, Bach Dang, Thao Dien, Quoc Huong, and Nguyen Van Huong will flood due to heavy rains.

Roads such as Huynh Tan Phat, Tran Xuan Soan, Le Van Luong, Dao Su Tich, and National Highway 50 will flood due to high tides.

HCMC and the southern region have just entered the rainy season, but the city already recorded many roads submerged up to the wheel rims, including some roads in Thu Duc City such as Vo Van Ngan, La Xuan Oai, To Ngoc Van and Duong Van Cam.

Notably, several sewers on Vo Van Ngan Street and its sections were damaged amid heavy rain in mid-May, despite an anti-flooding project that costs over VND248 billion ($9.75 million) having been launched in the area three weeks before that.