HCM City needs huge capital for flood-prevention programmes

HCMC has called for investment into 17 anti-flood projects

Nguyen Hoang Anh Dung from the HCM City Anti-flood Operation Center said the flood mitigation program is one of seven key programs to be implemented in 2016-2020. 

To date, VND23 trillion out of the total capital amount of VND96.3 trillion needed has been arranged. The city still needs VND73.3 trillion more.

The municipal authorities can allocate a budget of VND16.4 trillion for the program, but they are calling for more capital from different sectors.

The most noteworthy projects include a waste water collection system and a 630,000 cubic meter per day waste water treatment plant in the Tay Sai Gon river basin, Binh Tan and Tan Hoa-Lo Gom areas. 

The plants in other areas are smaller with capacity of between 100,000 and 170,000 cubic meters per day.

The impact of climate change has become more serious and urbanization has become faster, while anti-flood and waste water treatment works still cannot cope with the impact.

To date, only three canal dredging projects, three waste water treatment plants and 4,100 kilometers out of 6,000 kilometers of outlets have been built.

“We are calling for investment in urban environment and waste water treatment projects under the mode of BLT (build, lease, transfer) and BTL (build, transfer, lease). With the projects, investors will take back the investment capital by collecting water drainage service fees,” Dung said, adding that the service fee frame would be released by municipal authorities in 2018.

Commenting about the way of calling for investments, analysts said the projects will surely attract investors if the city sets regulations on collecting fees from domestic waste water treatment, because the investors now can predict capital recovery capability. 

Meanwhile, attendees at a conference held by the HCM City authorities in mid-August expressed their concern about the efficiency of anti-flood projects.

HCM City Vice Mayor Tran Vinh Tuyen said it is necessary to find the exact causes of flooding.

He went on to say that in the immediate time, water drainage programming will be adjusted. After that, a map simulating the flood situation will be built up to find proper solutions.

Chau Nguyen Xuan Quang from the HCM City National University suggested building water reservoirs to contain rainwater which will help settle floods in localities, but also provide underground water and improve surface water quality.