VietNamNet Bridge – Most major components of HCMC’s master zoning plan for drainage until 2020 have been moving at a snail’s pace in the past 15 years though the city has spent some VND29 trillion on them.

The plan will not be completed in 2020 as scheduled and will require funding that is much higher than the sum the city has spent, according to a report of the city government on urban flooding controls.

In 2001 HCMC drew up the master plan (Plan 752) until 2020 and got approval from the Prime Minister for its irrigation and flooding control plan (Plan 1547) in 2008.

With Plan 752, only 40% of the building and upgrade of the drainage system has been done with 2,593 out of 6,000 kilometers of sewers finished. Meanwhile, just around 1% of other important components have been completed.

The report said 60.3 out of 5,075 kilometers of canals have been dredged. The city has finished only phase one of one wastewater treatment plant out of a dozen facilities and built only three out of 103 reservoirs planned.

The city government has allocated VND24.3 trillion to implement Plan 752.

With Plan 1547, only one out of ten flood tide sluices (Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Sluice) and 64 out of 126 kilometers of embankments have been built with total allocated capital of VND4.753 trillion.

To expedite the two plans, the city government has divided the remaining components into two phases, 2016-2020 and after 2020, with a focus on components in the areas with rapid growth, economic significance and impact on many people.

In particular, the city will continue dredging around 32 kilometers of Tham Luong-Ben Cat-Rach Nuoc Len canal and 8.2 kilometers of Xuyen Tam Canal, and build seven wastewater treatment plants under Plan 752.

As for Plan 1547, the city will construct eight flood tide sluices (Vam Thuat, Rach Nuoc Len, Ben Nghe, Tan Thuan, Phu Xuan, Muong Chuoi, Cay Kho and Phu Dinh), eight minor sluices and 19 kilometers of embankments along the Saigon River.

If the works are built from 2016 until 2020, they will help reduce flooding in areas covering around 550 square kilometers and benefit around 6.6 million people in 13 inner-city districts and parts of outlying districts in the city.

However, the problem, according to the HCMC government, is to seek sufficient funding for such components as the two plans will require over VND66.8 trillion in 2016-2020 alone.