More than 8,400 households in HCMC have been made vulnerable to floods by environment cleanup and road upgrade projects.

A boy gets help from an elderly to bring a bicycle into a house whose ground floor is more than one meter lower than the road surface in Binh Thanh District, HCM City 

These households are mostly in districts 6, 8, Binh Tan, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc.

The city government plans to provide financial support for the affected households as upgrades have led to the ground floors of many houses being lower than road surfaces, according to a report by the HCMC Department of Construction.

The main reason is there are different elevations in different parts of the city. There are 13 inner-city districts having elevations of less than 1.6 meters but the elevations in districts 6, 8, and Binh Thanh are lower than 1.3 meters, so they are prone to floods, chiefly triggered by heavy rains and flood tides, said the department.

The city’s approved housing elevation is at least two meters, compelling investors of infrastructure projects to use this height as a benchmark. Therefore, when these projects are complete, they would make the current elevations of the old residential areas lower than the surfaces of the newly-built or upgraded roads.

More than 7,100 households in District 8 and 519 others in Binh Tan District are on the same boat. Besides, over 600 households in District 6 must upgrade their homes as the Tan Hoa-Lo Gom Canal rehabilitation project will result in the homes being one meter lower than the roads.

According to the department, an estimated VND305 billion (US$13.4 million) will be sourced from the city’s budget to support them, including non-refundable aid of VND47 billion and preferential loans of around VND258 billion.

The department will seek the city government’s approval in the coming time.

SGT