The HCM City Anti-flooding Program Operation Center has submitted to the city People’s Committee a project to build three water reservoirs as a solution to prevent floods in the city.

Under the project, the reservoirs would be built in districts 4, Thu Duc and Tan Phu. The reservoir in Thu Duc district, covering dozens of hectares, would be located on a low terrain area, and would store water for the district and several neighboring areas.

Urban development planners believe that the flooding in HCM City has become worse in recent years because of a lack of depression areas where water collects. These have been filled up as a result of rapid urbanisation and construction projects. As a result, water cannot drain sufficiently.

Urban planners believe that it is necessary to re-create the depression areas by building reservoirs. When it rains heavily, the reservoirs would receive water and prevent  flooding in the drainage system.

The sizes of the reservoirs and the numbers of reservoirs to be set up in districts would depend on the terrain conditions. It is estimated that hundreds of reservoirs would be built and located in residential quarters, in underground tanks alongside pavements, and under school yards or buildings.

The largest reservoirs would be built in suburban areas, while the inner districts of the city would only have small ones. The total capacity of the reservoir system would be tens of millions of cubic meters of water.

The idea of developing a reservoir system has been applauded by many experts, who believe that this is the best solution to adapt to climate change because it can help ease the overloading of the water drainage system when heavy rains and high tides occur at the same time.

Dr. Ho Long Phi from the HCM City National University has urged regulatory agencies and involved parties to take action immediately to operate the flood-prevention program in a sustainable way.

Phi said there are many things to be done - drafting and promulgating the regulations for water space, establishing an early warning system, and setting up the operation procedures for multi-purpose reservoirs.

Scientists believe that building reservoirs is the best solution to flood-prevention because these “soft works” are can be changed later if necessary to increase capacity and be adapted to new conditions.

Phi warned that the current sewer system in HCM City will be overloaded in 10 years, and the reservoirs will support the sewer system by that time.