Prior to that, the center proposed building another three anti-flood reservoirs, but the projects have not been implemented.

HCM City plans to build more than 100 artificial reservoirs to fight floods, but the city is not taking full advantage of natural lakes.

The locations where the flood control center wants to build reservoirs are all near natural lakes. In district 10, for example, there is Ky Hoa Lake, which has been filled up largely to make room for construction works. In Binh Thanh district, Van Thanh Lake has not been used for anti-flood purposes. 

The center is rushing to implement anti-flood reservoir projects, especially in populous areas. Other solutions such as repairing culverts and building canals are much more costly, and are not effective due to high urban density.

There are other natural lakes, but many have been filled up and have lost the function of containing water when it rains. These include lakes in district 7, a lake in Le Thi Rieng Park in district 11, and ones in Hoc Mon and Binh Chanh districts.

According to the Flood Control Center, the city has natural lakes, but they cannot be used to fight floods. The urban sewer drainage systems drain waste water, and if natural lakes are used as a water reservoir, this may cause pollution to the environment.

Meanwhile, the solution of cleaning waste water before letting it enter natural lakes is unfeasible because of the high costs.

Also according to the center, the flooded areas that need to be settled are not near areas with natural lakes. To lead water from flooded areas to natural lakes, it is necessary to build pipelines, which will be costly.

The center is rushing to implement anti-flood reservoir projects, especially in populous areas. Other solutions such as repairing culverts and building canals are much more costly, and are not effective due to high urban density.

However, only one project has been put into use, in Thu Duc district with small capacity.

Building anti-flood reservoirs is a solution applied for the last five years. However, according to many experts, the solution used in many cities around the world may not be the best solution for HCM City.

In related news, Dutch experts have proposed building dykes to control flooding in HCMC’s districts 2 and 9. The project is estimated to cost $1.2 billion.

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