A two-hour rain can badly flood some HCMC streets because of the poor drainage system in the city. Though early rains have not been heavy, they still have put many areas in the city under water.

According to the Anti-flood Center, 14 roads in the city are inundated regularly when it rains and 21 others are inundated occasionally. 

Some measures have been applied to stop flooding on 21 roads, but flooding still occurs when it rains too heavily. 

State management agencies in HCMC every year in the last 10 years report they have stopped flooding at dozens of places. However, the city still has flooding problems.

State management agencies in HCMC every year in the last 10 years report they have stopped flooding at dozens of places. However, the city still has flooding problems.

Experts have pointed out that while more and more construction works have been developed, infrastructure items have not.

Road No 8 in Truong Thanh ward of district 9 is just one kilometer long and 6 meters wide, but there are many land plots for sale. 

Visitors to the area can see sluices to collect waste water on asphalt ways, but in fact rainwater and waste water from new houses all go to canals, because no water drainage system exists there. 

However, the canals have narrowed because real estate developers have encroached on them, turning canals into land surface for sale.

A report of the district 9 people’s committee said there were still no sewers for 150 roads in the locality.

The same situation can be seen in many other suburban areas such as Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon and Cu Chi. However, these are areas where most construction works have arisen recently.

An analyst said that it takes about 1-2 years to follow procedures to get the nod from appropriate agencies to build drainage systems, but more and more construction works arise every day.

Ho Long Phi, director of the Water Management and Climate Change Center under the HCMC National University, said that the strong rise of construction works and houses in the areas where infrastructure items still have not been developed will lead to flooding.

The money for anti-flooding works is from the budget. “The budget is too small and it must be divided among many different public investment sectors,” Phi said.

“The environmental protection fee collected from clean water users is just enough to dredge sewers,” he commented. 

He believes that in order to obtain enough money to fight flooding, it is necessary to call for capital from different groups of investors in society.

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Mai Thanh