The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho should relocate more than 18,400 people living along sections of high risks of erosion along local rivers and canals to ensure their safety, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Can Tho city has suffered 16 cases of erosion this year, which destroyed 10 houses and damaged 43. 

Speaking at a meeting on September 6, director of the Department Nguyen Ngoc He reported that in 2010-17 the city suffered 153 cases of erosion along rivers and canals in which four people died, five were injured and 53 houses were destroyed. The total length of the affected areas was 6.1 km. 

This year there have been 16 instances in which 10 houses were destroyed and 43 were damaged.

Even some densely populated areas are highly vulnerable.

The threat of erosion remains serious, especially in sections that have high waterway traffic, according to the city’s Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control and Search and Rescue.

To prevent erosion, nine embankments with a total length of nearly 22 km will be built in eight districts in 2018-20.

He said the city is petitioning the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to obtain Government funding for the city to build two embankments along the O Mon River at a cost of 421 billion VND (18 million USD).

One of them, at the Thoi Loi area in O Mon District, will be 1.57km long, and the other will stretch 1.9km from the O Mon Bridge to the Ba Rich rivulet mouth.

The city has 155km of rivers and canals threatened by erosion, according to the department.

Vo Thanh Thong, chairman of the city People’s Committee, said relevant departments and agencies should study additional measures to support the people to be relocated.

“The important things are the consent of people to move and that there are highly favourable conditions in their new living areas for them,” he said, adding that districts should apply measures such as planting trees along the banks of rivers and canals to prevent erosion.-VNA