Anti-erosion embankment around HCMC peninsula incomplete after 17 years

Thanh Da Peninsula lies 5 km from Ho Chi Minh City’s downtown, spreading 635 ha in Binh Thanh District.

Surrounded by the Saigon River and Thanh Da Canal, a manufactured waterway that is linked with the river, the peninsula is prone to erosion. In 2006, HCMC launched a project to build an anti-erosion embankment for the peninsula.

The project was divided into four sections. Until now, only one section costing VND110 billion (US$4.65 million) and running more than 2 km long has been completed.

The remaining sections run 9 km long in combination. After a period of delays, construction started on those sections seven-eight years ago but none is near completion.

In the photo above, the construction site of the second section, which is 2.8 km long and costs VND319 billion, is left deserted on July 22.

With no embankment in the making, this area of the peninsula is still on the list of places at threat of "especially dangerous erosions."

Building materials for the second section are left scattered along the riverbank.

The construction site of the fourth section, which is 2.7 km long and costs over VND380 billion.

Work on the fourth section has stopped.

"A few years ago, a contractor came and had workers build the piles and demarcate areas of the embankment but since then, no work has been done yet," said a local named Van Khanh.

Embankment paving stones are covered with wild weeds.

Piles that are supposed to become part of the embankment's fourth section.

Stakes are placed to temporarily mark the area where the fourth section of the embankment would be built.

According to the municipal Department of Transport, contractors have received a clear site to build the second and fourth sections since 2020.

The Transportation Works Construction Investment Project Management Authority, which manages the embankment project, has said recently that within July and August, it will end the contract with the two contractors building the second and the fourth sections, and come up with a solution to handle them for their tardiness that has affected the entire project’s progress.

Construction is underway for the third section, stretching 4 km long and costing more than VND643 billion.

The area where the first section of the embankment has been completed since 2009.

A 120-m-long part of the first section was eroded in late June, forcing 13 families to move.

Since then, the canal bank in this area has kept subsiding.

To accurately assess the cause and remedy, more field studies and data on topography, geology, and hydrology are needed, according to the Department of Transport.