VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City authorities’ flood control plans have become outdated as existing facilities cannot handle the increased flooding.

More than 20 water resource, hydrometeorology and environment experts, who met with the HCM City Transport Department on the last day of October, all said that it is necessary to adjust an out-of-date flood control plans or the flooding will not be settled in the next few decades.

Le Hoang Minh, deputy director of the HCM City Transport Department, admitted that the flooding in the city had become alarming.

He said the sewer systems built to prevent flooding in accordance with the water drainage program in Decision No 752 have become ineffective because the rainfall has far exceeded the designed capacity of the anti-flooding works.

The city is planning to build 13 sewer systems to prevent flooding but it is unclear when it will be completed. The question remains on what to do in in the interim, he said.

Hundreds of kilometers of sewers in the city were built under Prime Minister’s Decision 752 released in 2001. But the decision is out of date.

If the rainfall is higher than 85 mm, the water will overflow third-class sewers. Meanwhile, 36 rains with rainfall of above 85 mm reportedly took place from 2006 to now.

The sewer systems’ elevation level was designed at +1.32 meters. However, the peak of the flood tide sometimes has reached 1.68 meters. The flood tide at Nha Be Station reached its peak of 1.7 meters on October 10, 2014.

According to an official of the HCM City People’s Committee, the city’s anti-flooding project (project 1547) approved by the Prime Minister five years ago initially had investment capital of VND11 trillion. However, the real investment capital has climbed to VND57.8 trillion, though many important construction items of the project have not been completed.

A report of the city’s flood control center showed that under Decision No 752, the city needs 6,000 kilometers of sewers, but only 3,099 kilometers have been built.

Le Thanh Cong, director of D&C, a consultancy firm, noted that the flood control projects all have large scale, but they are not based on thorough research.

As a result, the projects, designed on the basis of unreliable forecasts and figures, are not feasible. Projects 752 and 1547 are typical examples. Cong noted that if existing problems cannot be settled, the construction items of project 1547 would not be completed after 15 more years, while the items of project 752 would not be ready by 2020.

TBKTSG