Tran Xuan Soan Street is about 3.3 km long, running along the Te Canal, connecting from Huynh Tan Phat Street to Rach Ong Bridge. Every time the tide rises, water from the Te Canal overflows the road, turning the entire route into a "water sea".
The most heavily flooded area is the Tan Thuan 2 bridge foot, disrupting people's travel, trading and daily activities.
Mr. Mai Van Minh (45 years old, living on Tran Xuan Soan Street) shared: "Heavy tides often appear twice a month, lasting 3 - 4 days. From October to December, the flooding is the heaviest, early morning and evening, the water rises and overflows into the house. I am still lucky because my house is higher than the road, and many households in low alleys have water that flows back up from the restroom.
Many families here have raised their floors and houses many times to avoid flooding but still "losed" the high tide. Ms. Nguyen Thanh Phuong (55 years old), owner of a grocery store on Tran Xuan Soan Street, said: "I have raised my house 3 times, a total of more than 1 m, but the flooding still does not stop. There were years when the water rose, so I had to build temporary walls to prevent water from flooding in, to avoid damage to goods and furniture."
Notably, in this area, there is a Tan Thuan tidal sluice - a project project worth nearly VND10,000 billion to prevent floods but has been "shelved" for the past 5 years.
Mr. Nguyen Kien Giang - Deputy Head of the Department of Traffic Management, Maintenance and Exploitation (HCMC Department of Construction), said that the height of Tran Xuan Soan Street is currently only 1.52 - 1.8 m, 2 m lower than the minimum in the area.
The old drainage system, with a small diameter (D400 - D800), has seriously degraded and does not meet drainage requirements during heavy rain or high tides.
According to Mr. Giang, at the end of August 2025, the District 7 Construction Investment Project Management Board started the project to build the embankment of Tran Xuan Soan Street, over 509 m long, with a peak elevation of 2.6 m, with a total investment of over 75 billion VND from the Ho Chi Minh City budget.
At the same time, the city is also preparing to implement a flood prevention project on Tran Xuan Soan Street, more than 3 km long, from Huynh Tan Phat Street to Ong Canal, with a total capital of 245 billion VND.
The project will raise the flexible road surface in each area, the highest at about 0.65 m, while renovating the drainage system and technical infrastructure along the route.
Mr. Nguyen Kien Giang said: "These projects will help significantly reduce local flooding. However, to completely resolve flooding caused by tides, it is necessary to soon complete the Tan Thuan tidal sluice project and the entire tidal prevention project worth nearly VND10,000 billion".
Tan Thuan tidal sluice is one of 6 main sluices in the Ho Chi Minh City tidal flood resolution project taking into account climate change factors, with a total investment of nearly 10,000 billion VND.
The entire project had reached more than 90% of the construction volume but had to be temporarily suspended since the end of 2020 due to legal and financial problems.
Mr. Nguyen Hoang Anh Dung - Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Project Management Board, said that the project has currently completed about 92% of the volume.
HCMC aims to put all 6 tidal sluices into operation in 2026, with priority given to the early completion of the two large sluices of Ben Nghe and Muong Chuoi, said Mr. Dung.
According to Mr. Dung, after the Government issued Resolution 212 to remove legal problems, Ho Chi Minh City has established two working groups to review and adjust the project and is waiting for the appraisal of land fund to pay to investors to re-sign the contract appendix.
At the same time, the city also worked with BIDV Bank and the State Bank to remove financial difficulties and soon re-construct the project.
