Flood experts have called for the Ho Chi Minh City government to adopt
drastic measures to control flooding here in the city; otherwise, the
city will not be able to solve this chronic problem in future, the
Saigon Times Daily reported.
The HCM City Department of Transport
invited 20 experts in irrigation, hydrometeorology, natural resources
and environment to a seminar in the city last week to discuss possible
measures for controlling worsening floods.
Le Hoang Minh, deputy
director of the department, said the HCM City government needed experts
and scientists to propose how to ease flooding caused by heavy rain and
high tides in the city.
Minh pointed out the actual situation
that rainfalls of 85 millimetres or higher alone overloaded the drainage
system developed in the city in accordance with a zoning plan approved
by the Prime Minister in Decision 752/2001/QD-TTg. Tide levels increase
year after year but when 13 tide control sluices are completed remains
unknown.
“Therefore, flood control is a hard nut to crack in the
current context,” the Daily quoted Minh as saying. “We request experts
and scientists suggest measures and send them to the department and
relevant agencies.”
There have been 36 downpours with average
rainfall of over 85 millimetres in the city since 2006. Flood tides have
risen since 2008, reaching an all-time high of 1.7 metres on October
10.
The funding of the irrigation project aimed to prevent
flooding in HCM City has amounted to 57.8 trillion VND from 11 trillion
VND. Five years after the project was approved by the Prime Minister,
the city has completed only a small workload of the main components
including building 149 kilometres of embankment along the banks of the
Saigon River and nine big sluices to control flooding triggered by heavy
rain and tides in the city.
A report presented by Do Tan Long,
head of the water drainage department at the HCM City Steering Centre
for Flood Control, showed that the city needs to have 6,000 kilometres
of sewer but less than 3,100 kilometres have been built. The city has
been able to finalized construction of some 31 kilometres of embankment
and only one sluice out of the 13 sluices.
Irrigation expert Le
Thanh Cong, director of consulting firm DC, was cited as saying
that the city is executing major flood control projects without in-depth
studies and will not address the flooding problem in the next 6-15
years.
Cong called for relevant agencies to invest heavily in
thorough studies on the rainfall and flood tides as well as correct
shortcomings in zoning plans on flood control in the city.-VNA