In the early morning of October 7, group chats in my neighborhood came alive.

Parents were asking one another whether to send their children to school or go to work, as heavy rain from Typhoon No. 11 had poured all night over Hanoi.

After a few messages, someone announced that the school had emailed to cancel classes - and just like that, everyone decided to keep their children home.

After a series of recent floods, Hanoi residents have learned how to protect themselves.

Once again, heavy overnight rain turned major streets such as Nguyen Trai, Truong Chinh, To Hieu, and Pham Van Dong into rivers.

But unlike last week - when Typhoon No. 10 brought the city to a standstill - this time, people noticed a difference: the authorities reacted faster, coordination improved, and lessons appeared to have been learned.

The education sector offers a clear example.

After years of waiting for top-down directives, principals are now empowered to decide whether to suspend classes based on local conditions.

It’s a small but meaningful change - giving decision-making power to those directly responsible.

When schools in flooded areas can act flexibly, students are safer, traffic is lighter, and parents feel more at ease.

This reflects a government that is beginning to decentralize authority and assume true accountability.

A week earlier, rainfall from Typhoon No. 10 submerged nearly a hundred areas, left thousands of vehicles stalled, and trapped students in their schools.

The entire city was paralyzed, while the response system seemed powerless.

But when Typhoon No. 11 approached, things were different.

An emergency directive was issued early.

City Chairman Tran Sy Thanh convened a crisis meeting, demanding “no surprises in any scenario.”

The city mobilized 17,000 personnel, over 2,000 vehicles, and 624 pumping stations running continuously.

That was a sign of a government that had learned and acted faster.

After Typhoon No. 10, social media overflowed with criticism - poor warning systems, weak leadership, and a lack of visible presence from officials.

This time, the city didn’t avoid criticism; it listened.

Authorities reviewed the alert procedures, reassigned responsibilities, and enhanced communication.

It was the right approach: to treat public feedback as real data for adjustment, not as noise to ignore.

A government close to its people listens to improve - not to justify.

However, listening alone is not enough if infrastructure remains fragile.

Listening is a short-term response; drainage capacity is a long-term test of an urban city’s resilience.

Flooding remains an unresolved pain

Hanoi’s drainage system is alarmingly weak.

According to the Hanoi Drainage Company, Hanoi’s drainage system was originally designed to handle only about 50 mm of rainfall per hour. During Typhoon No.10, total rainfall reached nearly 500 mm over a 10-hour period — far beyond the system’s capacity, resulting in widespread flooding. 

A long-standing paradox persists: older inner districts like Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, and Dong Da drain better than newer urban areas such as Cau Giay, Ha Dong, Nam Tu Liem, and Hoai Duc, which still rely on natural flow.

High-rise buildings rise faster than drainage pipes.

New roads open, but the water has nowhere to go.

The fastest-growing areas are now the most flood-prone.

Among the city’s three main pumping stations - Yen Nghia, Dao Nguyen, and Chem - only Yen Nghia has been completed, and even it runs at just 50–70% capacity because the La Khe channel remains unfinished.

The other two stations haven’t even broken ground.

Whenever the Nhue River rises, water from My Dinh, Ha Dong, and An Khanh cannot drain out - and often flows back into neighborhoods.

A city of over ten million residents cannot fight floods with just a few emergency orders and underpowered pumping stations.

Despite improvements in response, weak infrastructure means the city is still chasing the water.

Every heavy downpour exposes delayed projects, incomplete plans, and unspent budgets.

When flooding occurs, public anger turns toward the Drainage Company - even though the problem stems from the entire system of planning, investment, and oversight.

A metropolis cannot escape flooding by blaming the weather.

To end chronic inundation, Hanoi must change its mindset: drainage is not solely a construction issue, but a matter of urban planning, green space, retention lakes, transport design, and river-basin management.

New high-rises and urban developments cannot continue receiving permits while drainage infrastructure “awaits future projects.”

The city has shown willingness to learn, but genuine reform begins only when billion-dollar projects move off paper and into action.

If Typhoon No. 10 tested the city’s responsiveness, then Typhoon No. 11 tested its capacity to learn.

The next test will measure its ability to act.

Natural disasters are exams without advance notice - and Hanoi is retaking that exam after every storm.

This time, the city performed better: faster reactions, smoother coordination, stronger accountability.

But to earn the people’s trust, Hanoi needs to pass another exam - the one of effective public investment, long-term planning, and clear accountability.

When streets no longer flood, when rain no longer brings paralysis, when parents no longer ask anxiously, “Will classes be canceled today?” - that is when Hanoi will have truly passed its own lesson.

Tu Giang