On September 23, Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Vu Dai Thang chaired a meeting on the situation and solutions for flood drainage of the Tich and Bui rivers.
Reserve maximum land fund for reservoir formation
Reporting at the meeting, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Le Thanh Nam said that this area still has many limitations in terms of dyke and irrigation systems, while the diễn biến of rain and floods is increasingly complicated.
According to the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, in the past 10 years, large floods have often appeared in the downstream area.
During the recent 2026 rain and flood, due to the impact of rain lasting more than 4 days, the water level of rivers simultaneously rose. Tich River at Kim Quan peaked at 9.12m; Bui River at Yen Duyet peaked above 7.8m; Day River at Ba Tha reached about 7.2m and My Ha River reached about 6.1m. Therefore, many embankments in the area were overflowed.
Regarding long-term solutions, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Le Thanh Nam said that the Department has surveyed and studied previous projects and found that some reservoirs were built to cut across forest floods, but the scale has not met the requirements.
One of the solutions to be studied is to survey mountainous areas, identify suitable locations to build large-scale reservoirs to retain water and limit horizontal forest floods. These reservoirs can be combined to create landscapes, develop tourism and create conditions for local economic development.
For the downstream area, when floods from Chuong My overflow to Quoc Oai and continue to affect the lower areas, the water volume is very large while the current reservoirs have a scale of only a few dozen to a few hundred hectares, making it difficult to meet regulation requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to study the formation of large reservoirs, which can both store water and create landscape and development space.
In the coming time, the Department of Agriculture and Environment will continue to research and renovate Van Son reservoir; improve the capacity of Dam Moi pumping station, ensuring drainage requirements.
At the same time, the Department coordinates with the Project Management Board and communes in the area to calculate and develop a master plan, which includes assessing the number of affected households to have a suitable population relocation plan, and at the same time allocate maximum land fund for the formation of reservoirs.
Prolonged flooding is no longer simply due to rain
Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the City People's Committee Vu Dai Thang said that recently, Hanoi has experienced unusual rain, causing flooding in some areas. In the inner city area, after the rain ended, with the involvement of forces, vehicles and drastic direction from localities, floodwaters quickly receded, and people's production and business activities were restored.
However, in the western area of the city, some points are still flooded, directly affecting people's lives, travel, traffic and production.
In particular, the area of the Thang Long, Ha Bang, and Hoa Lac Avenue service roads is still flooded, and at times traffic must be diverted.
According to the Chairman of the City People's Committee, the prolonged flooding situation is no longer simply due to rain, because rain has ended for many days. According to initial reports, the main cause is related to the rising water level of the Tich and Bui rivers and floods from Hoa Binh and Phu Tho areas.
This is an issue that needs to be seriously assessed, because just one heavy rain like the recent one has caused significant damage, affecting life, production, business, and even impacting investment attraction in the western region" - Chairman Vu Dai Thang emphasized.
The Chairman of the City People's Committee requested relevant units to study comprehensively based on data on terrain, hydrology, rainfall and multi-year developments; build a methodical altitude and hydrology plan for the western area. In which, it is necessary to study the overall basin, connect solutions for 3 important river routes: Bui River, Tich River and Day River.
The Chairman of the City People's Committee assigned Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Bui Duy Cuong to coordinate and direct departments and branches of Agriculture and Environment, Construction, and related units to research, summarize documents and mobilize more central research institutes to develop a comprehensive project, and soon propose solutions to handle flooding.
Regarding immediate solutions, the Chairman of the City People's Committee requested units to strengthen the coordination mechanism for operating reservoirs, pumping stations and river systems.
In which, the Department of Construction and the Department of Agriculture and Environment should study and develop a coordination mechanism to proactively regulate the system; when there is a forecast of heavy rain, it is necessary to proactively drain and discharge water first to increase flood prevention capacity.
Along with that, relevant units need to promote dredging of rivers to increase drainage capacity and flow capacity, limit the pressure to raise the dyke elevation. Dredging needs to be implemented quickly, and at the same time study to utilize the resources collected to serve appropriate projects.
