Ho Chi Minh City needs VND100,000 billion ( nearly $4.5 billion) for flood prevention works to 2020, reported Mr. Do Tan Long, head of the Steering Center of Urban Flood Control Program in the city.

He made the statement at a seminar “Solution for improving urban landscape architecture, traffic and flood prevention” jointly organized by the municipal Department of Planning and Architecture and the National Architecture Institute.

Deputy Head of the Department of Planning and Architecture Hoang Tung explained the cause of flood in the city was due to water-proofing surface and increased rainfall, resulting in overload in newly-built drainage system. The urban constructions in low areas also increase risk of inundation.

Additionally, the drainage system construction connecting old residential blocks and newly set up one has been behind the urbanization progress; accordingly, there is high rish of floods in the new areas. 

Moreover, the city need to build anti-flood reservoirs to tackle inundation in downtown and parts of outskirts as well as improve water environment with the aim to improve living condition and environment protection.

For the short-term solution, this year the city sent five inspection teams to handle construction encroaching canals and dredge rivers, canals and fix drainage systems in bad state and install more pumps.

For the long-term solution, the city focused on drainage and waste treatment system. Two major constructions are dredging Tham Luong - Ben Cat - Nuoc Len canals with the length of 32km and 8.2 km Xuyen Tam canal.

Additionally, the city planned to allocate a sum for building three anti-flood reservoirs including 23 hectare Go Dua in Thu Duc District; 0.4 hectare Bau Cat in Tan Binh District and 4.8 hectare Khanh Hoi in district 4.

Moreover, construction works of seven waste treatment plants and sewer system have been carried out in Binh Hung, Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe, Tham Lương - Ben Cat, Tan Hoa - Lo Gom, West Sai Gon, North Sai Gon 1 and Binh Tan.

SGGP