Flood system funds sought

Workers rebuild a dyke in Thu Duc District in HCM City. The city has called on the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to secure funding from the Government for an ongoing tidal flood regulation project. — VNA/VNS Photo Thang Giang

HCM CITY — HCM City has petitioned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to secure funding from the Government for an ongoing tidal flood regulation project.

It follows a joint inspection of the HCM City Integrated Flood Master Plan by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat and deputy chairman of the city People's Committee, Nguyen Trung Tin, last Saturday.

They examined embankments along the Thu Duc and Lung Channels in Thu Duc District, Sai Gon River Dyke, two sluice systems at Binh Trieu Bridge and Lang Channel in Binh Thanh District, and others.

He held a meeting soon after with city authorities and it was decided to build four tidal regulation sluice systems on the Kinh, Phu Xuan, Vam Thuat and Tan Thuan rivers.

Also proposed were building embankments and dredging main drainage systems including channels from Ben Suc (Cu Chi District) to Provincial Road 8, from Vam Thuat River (District 12) to Kinh Lo River (Nha Be District), and several others.

The director of the Steering Centre for Flood Prevention, Nguyen Phuoc Thao, said the city was flooded at 269 places in early August.

The city has a drainage system of 1,500km, a quarter of the length envisaged under a master plan through 2020.

Some projects have been finished, helping to mitigate the flooding. They include dredging 3,508km of drains and 16km of channels and floodgates, cleaning 1,221 septic tanks, repairing or enlarging 1,782 drain sluices, and installing pumping stations in 35 flood-prone areas.

Thao said the city would install 112 tidal regulation valves in flood-prone areas, 115 tidal prevention valses along the channels that usually flood, and mobilising mobile pumping stations. — VNS