Even though Ho Chi Minh City has made efforts to deal with flooding affecting the city centre, the city’s outskirts are experiencing increasing incidents, an official has said.
HCM City regularly floods
According to Ho Long Phi, Director of HCM City Flood Control Programme's Management Board, the city has incurred regular floods for years due to tidal waters, prolonged rains, overcharged flood discharges and unfavourable terrain.
The programme's steering centre said 60% of the city's area lies on low-lying land in the lower reaches of the Sai Gon-Dong Nai river system.
HCM City has recorded around 100 flooding hot spots experiencing 60 centimetres water. The most susceptible areas include Districts 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8.
The city’s rapid urbanisation has outstripped its drainage system, and it has failed to deal with increased floods.
"Due to the reliance on the flood control programme, many residential areas and industrial parks quickly developed on low-lying land since 1995, worsening floods in the area. While the city could deal with flooding in certain places, other locations have started to be plagued by the incidents," Long noted.
Uncontrollable underground water exploitation has also added to the situation, the centre said.
In order to improve the situation, municipal authorities have mapped out two master plans. The first focuses on upgrading the city’s drainage system to help deal with rain and wastewater in the inner city, while the second aims to build an irrigation system to help cope with tides that are increasingly affecting the city.
Despite increased efforts, several experts said the situation had yet to improve due to the lack of co-ordinated solutions to the problem.
Long assessed, “There has been contradictory and overlapping policies pursued in during the implementation of several projects, resulting in low efficiency."
Hoang Van Thang, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, suggested that the city should select the most effective and suitable solutions to its current circumstance, instead of applying different methods at the same time, a situation that had squandered investment.
"A competent agency should act as a coordinator for the city’s flood control projects in order to heighten efficiency," Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Director of Southern Irrigation Science Institute recommended.