Experts from the Netherlands have helped HCM City develop a plan to reclaim land from the sea to provide additional room for urban and economic development.
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| Hiep Phuoc is one of HCM City’s first sea-port projects |
On March 21, HCM City Department of Natural Resource and Environment announced their strategy to develop the city and harbour towards the sea. Since 2011, consultancy firm Grontmij and the municipality of Rotterdam have assisted the Vietnam Climate Adaptation Partnership (VCAPS) to develop the strategy.
The strategy pointed out six development orientations including redesigning the sewer system and reservoirs, reducing land subsidence by creating more choices in the use of underground water, and establishing a green city project.
The report suggested that urban planning to 2025 should develop toward the northwest and northeast instead of northwest and south. Currently, the southern areas are affected by unstable, low-lying areas subject to tidal flooding and are unsuitable for large-scale urban planning.
For port development, dredging operations have been carried out but careless dredging has allowed increased sea water encroachment upstream.
Ho Long Phi, Deputy Head of HCM City Anti-flooding Program, director of the Centre for Water Management and Climate Change under the National University in HCM City agreed to not build dikes to protect low-lying areas. If they protected the low-lying areas, people would flock there immediately.
Moreover, the southern region has experience numerous storms in recent years so climate change mitigation should be covered in the strategy.
Nguyen Dinh Hung, Deputy Director of HCM City Urban Planning and Architecture said the current strategy only emphasized port development and he requested a more detailed plan about city’s expansion toward the sea.
