The seven reservoir complexes would have a capacity of 1,500-20,000 cubic meters in the districts of Go Vap, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, Tan Binh and 10. 

An anti-flood reservoir with cross-wave technology on Vo Van Ngan Road was built by Sekisui Company from Japan as part of a pilot program. The 109 cubic meter reservoir has the function of mitigating floods on the street. It is buried deep underground and installed with cross-wave modules. 

The outstanding advantage of the reservoir cross-wave materials is the high mechanical durability, and ease of implementation of construction and installation. When the city no longer needs the reservoirs any longer, the cross-wave modules can be taken away for other construction works.

An official of the anti-flooding center said the solution can be applied in small and narrow areas with water storage capacity of over 90 percent and friendly to the environment. When it rains, the rainwater can be naturally absorbed into the earth, or stored for reuse. 

Cross-wave reservoirs can be placed in many different areas, under stadiums, parks, schools or parking lots. The solution is applicable to cities with limited public land like HCMC.

Ho Long Phi, Director of the Center for Water Resources Management and Climate Change, said he believes that building reservoirs is just a supporting solution, and that HCMC needs a master solution which includes construction of water drainage sewers and tide control sluices.

Under the water drainage program, called Program 752 approved by the PM in 2001, HCMC will build more than 6,000 kilometers of sewers by 2020. 

Do Tan Long from the Anti-flood Control Center, HCMC, has prioritized construction and improvement of drainage sewers. These include a project on dredging and upgrading Tham Luong – Ben Cat – Nuoc Len Canal, and a project on building eight tide control culverts.

Some experts recommended heightening the road beds to hasten drainage.

However, Nguyen Trong Dan, a member of the Vietnam Society for Hydraulic Association, said this is an unreasonable solution. The higher roads will block the water drainage of lower areas which will cause residential quarters to suffer more heavily from floods.

Hoa said that reservoirs with small capacity will have no significance if they have a small capacity. They will be useful when they have a large capacity, from tens to hundreds of thousand cubic meters.

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Mai Lan