The heavy rain on the afternoon of August 5 with rainfall exceeding 100 mm caused many roads in Ho Chi Minh City to be submerged in water. According to experts, the cause of flooding is not only due to heavy rainfall but also due to overloaded drainage systems and urban concreting.
According to a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the rain on the afternoon of August 5 measured on Duong Van Cam Street (Thu Duc Ward) was up to 108.2 mm. Heavy rain caused flooding of about 0.3 m deep on many roads such as Dang Thi Ranh, Duong Van Cam, Ho Van Tu...
In particular, the Thu Duc market area continues to be heavily flooded. An official from the Department of Construction said that Thu Duc market is located in a low-lying area, like a basin. When it rains heavily, water flows in from the surrounding concreted areas. Meanwhile, the drainage system here is old and has not been upgraded synchronously.
The city has only renovated a part of the culvert on Vo Van Ngan Street, while neighboring roads have not been renovated, limiting drainage capacity.
Explaining the flooding problem, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Song Giang (Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology) said that the rapid urbanization in the Thu Duc market area has increased the concrete conversion rate. This causes rainwater from high areas to flow into the market faster, while the drainage system to Cau Ngang canal is too narrow, leading to serious flooding.
He also proposed to find a way to divide the flow from routes such as Vo Van Ngan, Kha Van Can... to prevent the whole area from flocking to Thu Duc market, synchronously combining with many other solutions.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Vo Kim Cuong - Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Planning and Development Association - said that the cause of flooding in Ho Chi Minh City is not due to subsided soil but due to the overloaded drainage system. "The city has expanded but the old drainage system has not been upgraded, the canals are encroached, leading to overload," Mr. Cuong emphasized.
According to a representative of the Department of Construction, the rainfall in Ho Chi Minh City is on the rise, while the current drainage system has not met the demand. In particular, the Thu Duc canal's ability to receive and drain water is still weak.
The city is having a comprehensive plan to handle flooding in the Thu Duc market area: First, renovating Thu Duc canal to increase the ability to receive and drain water.
Second, build a water regulation system. Previously, the area around the market had natural soil for water to penetrate and flow into the pond. Now the land and lake are no longer there, so it is necessary to build scattered regulating lakes to reduce the load on the system.
Third, upgrading and renovating the drainage system on the roads around the market, especially those with small, degraded pipes.
Ho Chi Minh City is implementing the construction of Cau Ngang culvert to solve the "bottleneck" in draining water from the market to Thu Duc canal. The project is expected to be completed in November this year.
By September, the unit will continue to build a drainage system on Duong Van Cam, Dang Thi Ranh streets..., while dredging and maintaining Thu Duc canal. In addition, the work of dredging existing sewers and propagating people not to dump garbage into canals has also been strengthened.
The Thu Duc City People's Committee has previously planned to implement a flood reduction project with a total investment of VND4,000 billion in the period of 2026-2030, including research and construction of a regulating lake in the Go Dua area.
