Rapid urbanisation has shrunk green space in HCM City, with trees making way for
high-rise buildings.

A corner of HCM City littered with high-rise buildings. (Photo: VNS)

The city had set
itself a target of six to seven sq. metres of green space per resident in 2010,
but last year the figure had shrunk to a metre.

In 1998 the available
green space was 1,000ha, according to the HCM City Green Tree and Park Company,
but now it is half that number.

Dau Tu Newspaper
quoted Nguyen Khac Dung, head of the company’s green tree management department,
as saying the main reason for the per capita fall was the rapid population
growth.

“Streets laid through
parks to ease the traffic congestion have destroyed trees,” Dung said.

The city has now set
a target of 8 square metres per capita by 2015. But the company said it was an
impossible task, and, if done seriously, the green space could reach only
4.5sq.m.

The city pins it
hopes on new urban areas for the expansion. Of the city’s 535ha of green space,
the Phu My Hung area contributes 74ha, or 14 per cent.

Other parks likes Van
Thanh, Dam Sen, Ki Hoa, and Thong Nhat contribute another 107ha.

There is reason for
this hope. In 2006 the green space in the city’s nine urban districts was
estimated at less than 1 metre per capita. Thanks to the development of new
urban areas, it has recently risen to two metres.

The Diamond Island
project in District 2 has been designed to have 86 per cent green covering,
excluding 50ha of protected forest.

According to the
company, the per capita green space standard for a first-grade urban area is at
least five metres.

To meet this
requirement, HCM City needs an additional 4,000sq.m of public parks.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News