Sai Gon Moi Real Estate JSC, Van Phat Hung JSC, Riviera Point and Nha Be C Petroleum Depot have been named in mass media as enterprises which illegally conduct encroachment on canals and irrigation ditches to get land for real estate project development.

The HCM City People’s Committee, which has realized the danger of the encroachment, has requested the investors to repair the damage. 

Riviera Point, for example, has been told to build a water reservoir within the project area to ensure water drainage. However, there has been no sign showing that the company will obey the city’s instructions.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pham Sanh, a renowned transport expert, noted that replacing canals with sullage pits will not work, because the pits will not be able to regulate the water levels.

“This is really a blunder,” he commented. “How to regulate the drainage in the city when it rains heavily will still be a big question.”

Sanh stressed that canals have existed in the city for millions of years as gifts from nature to help settle the flood, while their role could not be undertaken by artificial methods.

“Even water reservoirs which are two times larger than the filled canals, if they are built, will also not help,” he said. “Allowing real estate developers to fill in canals and ditches to build houses is obviously a wrong decision the city’s authorities made some years ago.” 

“Water reservoirs can only ‘beautify’ the projects, while they cannot connect natural canals,” he said. “The disappearance of canals and ditches is the main reason behind the serious flooding in the city”.

About 60 percent of canals have been eliminated by real estate developers in the last 20 years.

Ho Long Phi from the HCM City National University explained that in principle, water reservoirs and canals have different functions. Water reservoirs can only help control the water level for specific projects, and cannot serve as natural canals. Even if the canals were not filled in, the city would still have to build water reservoirs to settle the water volume caused by urbanization.

Phi noted that it is HCM City’s people who have caused the floods, while high tide and heavy rains are just a small reason behind the current situation.

“The overly rapid urbanization process has led to the fact that rivers and canals have been filled in,” Phi said. “We are trying to change nature and we have caused serious consequences”. 

Dat Viet