Rains lasting 30 minutes and 1 hour can easily turn Vo Van Ngan, To Ngoc Van, Pham Van Dong streets in Thu Duc district, and Do Xuan Hop, Le Van Viet and La Xuan Oai streets in district 9 into rivers.

The city witnessed a historic rainfall on July 17 on Vo Van Ngan road, overturning motorbike drivers.

Even the Tan Son Nhat – Binh Loi – outer belt named Pham Van Dong, considered the most beautiful inner-city road, suffers from floods.

After 30 minutes of heavy rain, Pham Van Dong road in Linh Dong Ward was under water. Even houses with high foundations were inundated.

 Nguyen Van Binh, a local resident, complained that his house is flooded every time it rains heavily. “No one can explain why such a beautiful and heavily invested road can flood because of slow drainage,” he said.

To Ngoc Van street in Thu Duc district and La Xuan Oai in district 9 have also flooded badly.

District 9 authorities said though situated in a high area of the city, floods occur in some low-lying areas.

There are more than 100 road sections in the district which do not have drainage systems.

And 800 alleys do not have small outlets that link to large sewer systems or to canals.

The prolonged flooding is attributed to inadequate investment.

Two anti-flood projects have been implemented for Do Xuan Hop road, capitalized at VND400 billion. However, nothing has changed. This is because the project on upgrading the canal system has not been fulfilled.

The same situation can be seen in Thu Duc district. Nearly 40 percent of major routes in the district still don’t have sewers.

The Urban Infrastructure Center which manages and operates the drainage system in HCMC believes that Pham Van Dong Road floods because the sewer system is weak. Also, the project on improving drainage system initiated by the Thu Duc district People’s Committee has not been implemented.

According to Ngo Viet Nam Son, an architect, the drainage not only depends on canal or sewer systems, but other factors.

“The areas with hot urbanization such as districts 9 and Thu Duc have been developing rapidly without careful planning, so they are prone to flooding,” he said.

Linh Ha

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