VietNamNet Bridge – As the monsoon season approaches, Ha Noi authorities have developed several scenarios to cope with flooding to protect people and their produce.

Workers tile the dyke of the Hong River in Ha Noi before the monsoon season. City authorities have prepared scenarios to deal with flooding this rainy season.

Hoang Nam Son, deputy director of Ha Noi Department of Construction, said his department had come up with several plans to drain flood water after heavy rains.

Son said 32 anti-flood construction works in the inner city had almost been completed. According to plans, river dredging activities as well as sluices and flood gates must be completed before June.

Son said his department had mobilised 72 trucks to vaccuum up water, 20 pumps, 21 electric generators and other equipment to drain water from flood zones.

Chu Phu My, director of the Ha Noi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said he had asked all outlying districts to take measures to prepare for the monsoon season.

He asked irrigation departments in the outlying districts to develop detailed plans to drain the flood water from rice fields if necessary.

Nguyen Van Bay, deputy director of the Hong (Red) River Delta Hydro Meteorological Centre, predicted that in the coming monsoon season, Ha Noi would have one or two tropical storms, plus up to nine periods of heavy rain.

"The rainfall is expected to increase by five to 10 per cent over that in previous years," he said.

Truck damage

Meanwhile, heavy trucks running day and night have churned up road surfaces on many Red River dykes in outlying districts around Ha Noi.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reveal that the outskirts accounted for 20 per cent of the nation's dyke problems.

Tran Xuan Hoan, a local from Vong La Commune, Dong Anh District said that dykes through his commune were churned up day and night by heavy trucks.

"Under the law, only trucks under 10 tonnes are allowed to operate on dyke roads, but in reality, they often carry five or six times more than the limit," Hoan said.

Bui Duc Hiep, deputy chief of Phu Xuyen Dyke Management Unit in Phu Xuyen District said he saw overloaded trucks run on the dyke every day, but couldn't do anything.

"Heavy trucks create many potholes in dykes running through Khai Thai and Hong Thai communes, in Phu Xuyen District during the rainy season. This has seriously undermined the safety of the dyke" Hiep said.

Hiep and other local inhabitants said there were 211 dumping sites for construction materials along the dykes. Most of them were illegal.

Nguyen Huy Thong, who lives near a dumping site in Van Diem in Thuong Tin District, said people living next to the site were anxious about their safety as the monsoon season approached.

"Many parts of the dykes have subsided. They have the dangerous potential to lead to breaks in the dyke," Thong said.

VNS