VietNamNet Bridge - The HCM City Anti-flood Program’s Management Board plans to buy 63 specific vehicles to pump water in floods, but scientists say the solution is ‘anti-scientific’ and not feasible. 

The management board on March 17 confirmed that it has asked the city’s authorities to approve the budget of VND1.4 trillion to buy 63 anti-flood vehicles.

The price of one such vehicle is high enough to buy one super car Rolls Royce Phantom, nearly VND20 billion.

Commenting about the solution, Pham Xuan Mai from the HCM City University of Technology said: “I must say that it is not feasible to fight against flood with mobile pump machines in HCM City.”

He said water pump vehicles will not be useful, while in order to protect against flooding, it is necessary to have good water drainage systems and fixed pump stations with high capacity.

HCM City has been flooded because the pipelines for water drainage have a small diameter. “This is the mistake made by designers who could not estimate the real drainage capacity,” he commented.

Besides, HCM City is usually attacked by high tides. Most of the canals in the city are flooded because of the high tide and heavy rains. Meanwhile, many natural canals have been paved over and encroached on by real estate projects.

As such, even if mobile pumps are used, the pipeline needs to be large enough to fit the water drainage capacity of 20-30 cubic meters per second. In principle, there must be pipes from water pump vehicles to the discharge sites. If so, pipes will be put across streets, which will hinder traffic.

A reader, when hearing about the water pump vehicles, has warned that the vehicles may do more harm than good. 

“Floods will lead to traffic congestion. How will the large water pump vehicles go into the flood-stricken areas?” he wrote.

The HCM City Anti-flood Program’s Management Board plans to buy 63 specific vehicles to pump water in floods, but scientists say the solution is ‘anti-scientific’ and not feasible.

Mai also said he disagrees with the solution suggested by the HCM City Anti-flood Program’s Management Board, saying that the city should expand the pipeline’s capacity and remove unreasonable real estate projects which encroach on lakes and canals.

“Mobile pump machines must not be the solution for the long term,” he said.

The estimated price of the vehicles has become another hot topic of discussion among the public. 

“I don’t know any specialized vehicle which is valued at $1 million,” he said. 

“A first-class mobile pump vehicle, as far as I know, is priced at several hundreds of thousands of dollars, or VND1-2 billion. Other products must be cheaper,” he said.

Dat Viet