Flood prevention projects need to be reworked: experts

• Japan helps Vietnam improve flood prevention capacity

HCM City's flood prevention plan is no longer appropriate and should be an integral part of the city's overall urban planning, experts have said. (Source: VNA)

Ho Chi Minh City's flood-prevention plans should be focused more on the inner city and be closely linked to overall urban planning, experts have said.

The municipal People's Committee has asked for permission from the Prime Minister to reevaluate its flood-prevention irrigation plan, which is seen as no longer appropriate because of rising sea levels, climate change and changes to development plans.

To prevent flooding, which remains a serious problem in the city, authorities said they would link planning for construction projects to water drainage plans.

Le Thanh Cong, director of D&C Design, Consultancy and Construction Ltd Co., was quoted in Thanh Nien newspaper as saying that the revamping of the city's flood prevention plan was crucial.

The city has three overlapping regulatory plans on flood prevention which are one-sided and do not consider necessary factors, he said, adding that some of the methods used to calculate figures are outdated.

Cong said there should be one comprehensive plan and a study of factors such as rain and water levels that would be able to provide more accurate figures.

Each anti-tide sewer system's area of effect needs to be mapped out, and more construction works such as sewer gates and regulating reservoirs should be included in the inner city's water drainage system. This would help prevent floods from travelling from one area to another.

When carrying out the plan, action should be focused on the inner city and then move outward in order to achieve good results, he said.

Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son said that flood prevention is not just about water drainage infrastructure, but also trees and water distribution, land usage plans and traffic plans.

Urban planning and food prevention plans cannot be considered separately, he added.

Flooding in the city is primarily due not to climate change but to unsustainable development, traffic and construction plans, overuse of concrete and lack of sufficient water drainage.

In more developed countries, flood prevention plans are part of comprehensive urban planning, which includes traffic congestion prevention and land use plans. Without such comprehensiveness, solutions can only be short-term and are unsustainable, he said.

In recent years there have been numerous cases of high tides and flooded streets in the city.