The city will build around 170km of dike at the cost of VND11 trillion ($550 million) to prevent flood tide. However, scientists worried about its feasibility.

The dike will run along the right bank of the Saigon River, Soai Rap River and the left bank of Vam Co Dong River. The dike will be 2-3m high and 7.5m wide.

A closed system of sewers will be built at river mouths and canals of the Saigon, Nha Be, Vam Co and Vam Co Dong rivers.

There will have 12 major sewers of 20-120m wide and 4-10m high to control the water level inside the dike.

Nguyen Ngoc Cong, deputy director of HCM City Centre for Flood Control, said this system will help reduce flood, not to put an end of flood because climate change is very complicated and difficult to forecast.

However, scientists said that the city should reconsider the project carefully, otherwise flooding could be more serious.

Prof. Le Huy Ba, director of the Institute for Science-Technology and Environment Management said: “The city needs to anticipate its flood situation in the next 40-50 years. The project may be suitable to the city at this moment but will become outdated after a short period of time”.

He analyzed that flood tides rise very high at the beginning. If water is discharged through sewers, flood will occur.

Dr. Nguyen Huu Lan from Ton Duc Thang University said that the city should build dike along rivers but not a closed system to cover the entire city. It should recover the mangrove forest system, plant watershed forest and manage flows in the entire basin and build ecological reservoirs.

PV