Industrial waste at Ba Bo Channel
During a seminar on adapting and preventing climate change in HCM City, held by the local Department of Natural Resources and Environment on December 18, many experts urged the local authorities to carry out more research about the impacts climate change will have on the city before creating plans.
Ly Khanh Tam Thao, from the local Department of Planning and Architecture, said, "The authorities haven't included climate change impacts into the urban development plan to 2025, while in reality, many economic and industrial activities are adding to the problem." Thao went on to say that the government should offer preferential policies to projects that respond to climate change.
According to Ky Quang Vinh, Director of the Can Tho Climate Change Coordination Office, most of the plans to prevent climate change are built on the basis of scenarios provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. But in fact, those scenarios are taken from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and several scenarios may not be accurate.
"According to IPCC, the rainfall in Can Tho City will increase yet it hasn't increase for the last 30 years and is tending to decrease. However, the city suffers from more serious flooding than IPCC's predicts," he said.
Another delegate countered that, if the sea levels rises estuarine areas will be affected, but only the inner parts in Vung Tau City are at risk.
Vu Thuy Linh, Vice Manager of the Climate Change Bureau for HCM City, admitted that they have not collected independent information about impacts from climate changes. "However, our scenarios are based on the research of Dr.Nguyen Ky Phung from the local Department of Science and Technology," she said.
Phan Cong Bang, from the municipal Department of Transport, also warned that nine out of 15 border landmarks being encroached.