HCMC to launch 11 anti-flooding projects this year

The projects, costing over VND1 trillion ($43.5 million) in total, will be funded with the city budget and invested by the HCMC Management Board of Investment and Construction of Traffic Projects, the municipal Construction Department said in a plan submitted to the People Committee.

Of the 11 projects, the largest is the construction of a drainage system on Nguyen Duy Trinh Street in Thu Duc City with an investment of VND300 billion. It will be carried out on a 7-km section stretching from 990 Street to Vo Khe Bridge.

It is followed by a VND100-billion project to build a 1.3-km-long sewer on Ly Chieu Hoang Street in District 6.

Both projects are expected to be completed next year, helping increase the drainage capacity in areas vulnerable to flooding during the rainy season.

Yet another project will upgrade more than 600 meters of the Dam Sen Canal in District 11, replacing an old degraded drainage system at a cost of VND84 billion.

Water drainage systems will also be upgraded on flood-prone streets in the outlying districts of Nha Be, Cu Chi and Hoc Mon.

The other anti-flooding projects, also involving upgrades of drainage systems, will be implemented in districts 5, 11, 12 and Thu Duc City.

In addition, the city's construction department said that a VND10-trillion urban flooding prevention project, which helps control tidal flooding and proactively responds to climate change, is also targeted for completion this year.

This project, which covers 100 hectares (250 acres) in districts 1, 4, 7, 8, Binh Chanh and Nha Be, is building a new drainage system with more pumping stations that will be able to keep dry a 750-square-kilometer area in the downtown section along the Saigon River. Around 6.5 million people, or half of the city's population, are expected to benefit.

HCMC, a city of 13 million including migrants, has suffered flooding for more than two decades now. The city's development plan before 1975 was designed for around two million residents but that population has risen to 13 million, excluding migrants. Despite this upsurge, the drainage system has not been upgraded.

Experts have said that the drainage plans being used now are outdated and warned that without a sea change in flood-fighting efforts, the current situation will not just continue, but progressively worsen.