VietNamNet
Bridge – If still following the current
urban development programs, HCM City will move in a rut just like Bangkok
City’s flooding – Dr Ho Long Phi, Director of Center for Water Management and
Climate Change (WACC) gave the warning at the conference reviewing the one-year
implementation of the program on reducing flooding in 2011-2015.
In his
presentation, Dr Phi cited the figures to show the damages Bangkok incurred in
the one-month long biggest flood in the last 60 years. 815 people died, while
13 million people were affected, 930 factories got paralyzed, threatening
600,000 jobs. The total damage was estimated to reach 53 billion dollars, while
it would take 72 billion dollars to rebuild the city.
Phi
said that if a similar flood occurred in HCM City, the toll would be lower than
in Bangkok, because HCM City has not developed in the low land areas, such as
district 8. However, the districts 1, 4, 5 and 6 would still suffer.
After
the field trip to Bangkok, Phi pointed out the differences and similarities of
the two cities in terms of geographical conditions, the capability to prevent
and fight against flooding with the systems of dykes, water pump stations,
water reservoirs, and drainage system.
After
analyzing the current conditions, Phi has put forward two scenarios of HCM City
facing the flood.
HCM
City’s Deputy Mayor Nguyen Huu Tin emphasized that the principle the city must
follow is “minimizing damages, not only minimizing risks.”
Tin
said that the city will spend money to build an emergency flood corridor to
lower the Saigon River water, set up the agricultural production system
adaptable to the conditions of the low land areas, build the houses which could
serve as storm shelters for local residents, and install automatic water
prevention doors for supermarkets and high rise buildings.
Tin
said that in order to speed up the projects, the city’s planning and investment
department and the department for interior affairs have to hurry up the works
of surveying the field, inviting for bids and arranging capital.
Prior
to that, at a workshop discussing how to deal with the flooding in HCM City, Dr
Luu Duc Cuong, a senior official of the Ministry of Construction, warned that
the flooding in HCM City has become more serious in the last 10 years. Though
the city has completed four big projects on water drainage and environment
sanitation, the development of the water drainage system still cannot catch up
with the rapid urbanization process.
However,
Cuong pointed out that climate changes are not the only reason that causes the
serious flooding. He stressed that the uncontrollable urbanization should also
be seen as a high risk. Research works have found out that 75 percent of the
inundated places in HCM City are 2.5 meters higher than the sea water level,
while 70 percent of places get inundated with the modest rainfall of 400 mm, no
matter how the water level at the Phu An Station on the Saigon river is.
“In
order to settle the flooding to the every root, it is necessary to have good
urban programming,” Cuong said.
The
World Bank, in a document guiding the risk management in city flooding,
released one month ago, the risks lie in the poor water drainage system and
infrastructure items in big cities. The unreasonable underground water
management and the rapid population increase have also been cited as the big
problems.
However,
the World Bank believes that Vietnam has learned the lessons from other
countries in the world, and it could be seen as a good example in dealing with
natural calamities.
C. V
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com
No comments:
Post a Comment