The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just approved the Project to renovate urban areas of houses on and along canals and ditches in District 8.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction is assigned to be the standing agency, monitoring, synthesizing the implementation situation, promptly reporting and proposing to the City People's Committee to handle arising difficulties and problems.
From July 1, 2025, the People's Committees of the 3 new wards after the arrangement in District 8, Chanh Hung, Binh Dong and Phu Dinh, will start implementing the work according to the project.
The investment in social housing construction within the project framework will be flexibly implemented according to the methods, capital sources and preferential policies stipulated in the resolutions of the National Assembly and the decree of the Government on specific mechanisms for social housing development.
According to the project of the People's Committee of District 8, the whole district currently has 14,950 houses on and along canals that have not been relocated, stretching over 54km through 10 wards.
These include: 9,440 houses along canals and ditches; 1,589 houses completely on canals and ditches; 4,473 houses partly on the banks, partly on canals and ditches; 448 apartments in the old Pham The Hien apartment building.
These houses are concentrated along major canals such as: Doi Canal, Xang Canal, Ong Be Canal, Ben Nghe Canal, Song Ong Lon, Rach Nhuy... most of which are in a state of serious pollution, degraded houses, lacking basic amenities and posing a high risk of fire and landslides.
The core goal of the project is to relocate all households living on and along canals, along with investing in the construction of 9 resettlement housing and social housing projects, renovating old apartment buildings, dredging canals, building embankments, expanding traffic roads, developing green areas and public space.
District 8 sets the goal of: Drilling 36.5km of canals; building 73.1km of embankments on both sides; developing 734,750m2 of traffic roads along canals; creating 102,731.8m2 of parks and green areas; exploiting 247,000m2 of commercial - service land.
The project also restructures land use planning, reviews land funds managed by the State that have not been effectively used to invest in resettlement housing and social housing; organizes auctions of some commercial land funds, creates revenue for the budget, and reduces public investment pressure.
The total investment for the Project is estimated at about 105,179 billion VND. In particular, Ho Chi Minh City will exploit clean land funds for auction and development of commercial housing, with a total estimated revenue of about VND105,913 billion, equivalent to the total investment cost. This helps reduce budget pressure, ensuring long-term financial feasibility.
The special feature of the project is the integration of economic development, tourism and riverside services.
District 8 will research and develop river bus routes, organize regular cultural events such as Hoa Xuan Market, "On the wharf and under the boat" Fruit Week, associated with waterway tourism activities, arts, and night-time economy - turning the former low-lying urban area into an attractive destination of Ho Chi Minh City.
In addition, resettlement of people not only solves housing needs but is also associated with creating sustainable livelihoods, supporting vocational training, connecting jobs, ensuring people have a stable long-term life.
Previously, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee also approved a project to renovate houses on and along rivers, canals and ditches in the period of 2025 - 2030.
The whole city of Ho Chi Minh City currently has 398 unrenovated rivers, canals and ditches, distributed in 16 districts, towns and Thu Duc City, with about 39,600 houses that need to be relocated.
The city aims to basically complete the relocation and resettlement of people living on and along rivers, canals and ditches by 2030.
