VietNamNet Bridge – HCMC will assess the overall impact of flooding in order to prioritize investments in the vulnerable areas, heard a meeting held last week to introduce the 2014-2020 flood control program.

Trinh Cong Van, director at the Mekong Water Technology Innovation Institute and member of the program’s management board, said assessments of flood-triggered damage will concentrate on economic and social factors as well as direct and indirect losses based on experiences in foreign countries.

The assessments will be undertaken in the 2015-2020 period.

As reported by the HCMC Department of Transport at a meeting last month, floods at 47 out of 58 low-lying areas had been put under control but there were 29 new areas frequently submerged.

Ho Long Phi, director of the Center of Water Management and Climate Change under the Vietnam National University in HCMC, told the Daily earlier that the center surveyed 1,000 households in HCMC’s flood-stricken areas in 2011 to evaluate the damage of flooding in urban areas.

The survey found that flooding caused annual assets losses of US$30 million for the city’s residents. Indirect damage might be much greater but the center has not been able to calculate it, Phi said.

There has been no agency in HCMC giving statistics about the losses caused by flood tides and heavy rains, which are mainly responsible for heavy floods in the city.

A scenario about climate change in Vietnam is that if sea levels rise by one meter, 21% of HCMC would be inundated, 7% of the city’s residents affected and economic damage huge.

The HCMC government is also planning a rainwater storage system to reduce water drainage and reuse rainwater and a water holding system that consists of water tanks at residential areas and buildings.

Do Tan Long, head of the water drainage department at the HCMC Steering Center for Flood Control, told the Daily that a reservoir in District 4 would cover 4.8 hectares and cost VND304 billion.

More reservoirs like Thu Thiem in District 2, Go Dua in Thu Duc District and Bau Cat in Tan Phu District by the end of this year will be built.

In addition, the center will consider expanding and reinforcing other reservoirs.

According to experts in flood control, if the building of water reservoirs is carried out, the rainwater storage volume would amount to dozens of millions of cubic meters and flooding in HCMC could be reduced by 30%.

SGT