The Bình Bộ irrigation station in Bình Phú Commune in Phù Ninh District, Phú Thọ Province. — Photo laodong.vn

PHÚ THỌ — A drainage system that cost VNĐ258 billion (US$11.1 million) has been in operation for only 72 hours since it was built in Phú Thọ Province in 2016.

The reason for this? The floods have dried up, and in other words, climate change has screwed everything up.

Bình Phú Commune in Phù Ninh District used to be regularly submerged. In 1986, the dyke system along the Lô River broke, submerging crops and blocking traffic. The old sewer system was overloaded by heavy downpours.

That’s when provincial authorities decided to build a new drainage system in the commune.

However, since it was completed in late 2016, there has been a severe shortage of rainfall.

Worse, the province is facing a shortage of water for cultivation.

The system, as a result, has been left abandoned with domestic garbage dumped and wild grass growing around it.

Hoàng Tường from Bình Phú Commune told Lao Động (Labour) newspaper what he and other residents needed was a pump from the river to the rice fields instead a drainage system.

Tường said he had only seen the system running once or twice.

Nguyễn Hùng Sơn, director of the Phú Thọ Irrigation Works One Member Co, Ltd, said they were seeing if the system could be converted.

Its original function was to pump water from the fields into the river, not vice versa, he added.

It's no surprise the system has become a dump for local residents. — VNS