The project is expected to be a "steel shield" to protect the city from increasingly serious flooding.
However, after nearly a decade of implementation, the project has not yet been able to reach the finish line and now faces the risk of continuing to be missed due to procedural bottlenecks that have not been removed.
It is worth mentioning that this is not a newly started project or still has problems in site clearance. The project has completed more than 90% of the volume, and many main items have taken shape.
However, just because the procedures related to BT contract payments have not been completed, capital flow is blocked, and the project has to struggle to be prolonged year after year.
Meanwhile, every day of delay has to pay the price in real money. The incurred loan interest has reached about 2,500 billion VND and continues to increase.
Social resources are being eroded not by natural disasters, not by lack of construction capacity, but by prolonged administrative procedures.
Resolution 212 of the Government was issued in July 2025 to remove difficulties for the project. The handling mechanism has also been clearly identified, from adjusting the feasibility study report to the payment plan using land funds or public investment capital.
However, the actual implementation has not yet achieved the expected speed.
People have the right to ask, if the mechanism is there, the policy is clear, so why can't the project still be completed?
Every rainy season comes, a series of roads are deeply flooded, traffic is chaotic, production and business activities are affected, and people's lives are disrupted.
Damage from flooding is not only calculated in money but also in time, development opportunities and quality of life.
Therefore, each year of delaying putting the project into operation is an additional year for people to live with flooding and constant worries every time it rains.
Ho Chi Minh City is entering a new stage of development with the aspiration to become a modern megacity, the leading economic center in the region.
What is needed at this time is the more drastic action of functional agencies in implementing the mechanisms allowed by the Government, urgently completing the remaining dossiers to release capital and bring the project to completion.
If the 10,000 billion VND flood control project continues to be delayed, what will be lost is not only trillions of VND of arising loan interest, but also an opportunity to improve the quality of life for people and the adaptability of Ho Chi Minh City to the increasing challenges of climate change.
A dynamic city cannot let flood control projects forever be "submerged" in procedures.
