Ho Chi Minh City to complete $430mn anti-flooding project by year-end
Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 14:23 GMT+7
A major anti-flooding project worth approximately VND10 trillion (US$430 million) in Ho Chi Minh City is expected to be complete by the end of 2019, municipal Party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan said on Tuesday.
About 72 percent of the massive project, whose progress was delayed twice last year, has been completed, Nhan, secretary of the municipal Party Committee, said as he led a delegation of officials to observe its construction and listen to reports from the developer on Tuesday morning.
The BT (build-transfer) project is expected to proactively handle tide-related floods and lessen climate change consequences in a vulnerable 570-square-kilometer urban section inhabited by around 6.5 million people in the city center and along the Saigon River.
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| Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan speaks at a meeting on March 12, 2019. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre |
The structure will include six major tidal gates, seven kilometers of embankment along a section of the Saigon River, 68 small drainage networks, and pumping stations with a capacity of 12-24 cubic meters of water per second.
The project will also feature supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) centers in District 1, District 4, District 7, District 8, Binh Chanh District, and Nha Be District.
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| The construction of the project. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre |
Work started in late June 2016 but was temporarily halted in February 2018 due to issues of relocating residents in the construction zone.
In April the same year, it was once again delayed as capital disbursement was put on hold after the developer, Trung Nam Group, was found using a kind of steel different from what was agreed upon in the approved construction design.
The project was resumed in late February 2019.
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| A section of the anti-flooding project. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre |
During a meeting on Tuesday, Nhan praised the developer for overcoming the difficulties, especially in site clearance and compensation for the affected residents.
The leader asked district-level administrations to soon clear the areas needed for the project so that it would be finished by the end of this year.
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| A section of the anti-flooding project. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre |
The steel to be used for the construction must meet all quality requirements, he continued, adding that the prime minister previously tasked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with regularly assessing and supervising the implementation.
A suitable unit will be hired to operate the anti-flooding system upon its completion, according to Nhan.
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