The municipal authorities allocated a budget of VND163 billion for the project on stopping floods on Nguyen Van Qua Road in district 12 and VND136 billion for the project on improving the water drainage system on Do Xuan Hop Road in district 9.

Ironically, since the works were put into operation, the inundation in the areas has become even more serious.

Vu Hai, an engineer with more than 50 years of experience in water drainage, commented that the flood protection in HCMC has not been thoroughly studied, so big money has been spent but the situation has not improved much.

Since 2015, Tan Son Nhat International Airport has often flooded when it rains heavily. The airport spent a lot of money to upgrade the water drainage system, but the situation did not improve.

Only recently, when the members of the HCMC People’s Council came to the site were the reasons behind this exposed.

According to deputy chair of Tan Binh district Hua Quoc Hung, there are 10 units managing and exploiting the airport. However, as each of the unit builds its own drainage system and the systems don’t link with each other, they could not help the drainage of the entire airport.

Hung said when building the separate drainage systems, the units ‘forgot’ to cooperate with other units and the local authorities. When the units were building the drainage systems, even the officials of the district’s people committee could not enter the site to inspect the works.

As a result, though Tan Son Nhat Airport is located on a higher terrain than outside the fence, but the sewer inside the airport is lower than the sewer outside. The difference in the altitude of the systems reduces the drainage efficiency.

The airport can only be flooded if the Ministry of Transport (MOT) implements an anti-flood project inside and outside the airport.

In 2001, the government released Decision 752 approving the master plan to develop the water drainage network for HCMC by 2020 (Program 752). Many projects on dredging canals, clearing the flow, and developing urban drainage systems have been done according to this plan.

Some years later, in 2008, the government released Decision 1547 approving the irrigation anti-flood project for HCMC, covering the central area, 209,500 hectares, and some neighboring areas (Program 1547).

The VND10 trillion anti-flood project is part of the works to be done under program 1547.

Trung Anh

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